DIDUNCULIDAE 331 



that it still existed in inaccessible districts; while it is also 

 mentioned in an anonymous manuscript discovered at Paris, 

 written perhaps about 1729. Remains came into the hands of 

 Desjardins in 1789 (not fully recognised until 1832), and others 

 were forwarded to England ; but much the most important finds 

 were those of the late Sir Edward Newton in 1864, followed up 

 by Mr. Jenner in the succeeding years, and of Mr. H. H. Slater 

 in 1874. 1 In 1875 two complete skeletons were obtained, and 

 fairly perfect specimens of those of each sex are at Cambridge, 

 with others elsewhere. 



This Solitaire was larger than a Swan, the male standing about 

 2 feet 9 inches, and the female 2 feet 3 inches high ; the colour 

 of the former was brownish-grey, but the latter varied from the 

 hue of " fair hair " to brown, and had a whitish breast. The 

 slightly-hooked, elongated beak had a feathered ridge or peak at 

 the base of the culmen, the neck was elongated and straight, the 

 legs were longer and weaker than in the Dodo, the wings were 

 rudimentary, the hind part (pelvis) was rounded, the tail was 

 hardly noticeable, and the thigh-feathers were thick, and curved 

 " like shells " at the end. A spherical mass of bone, " as big as 

 a musket-ball," was developed on the wings of the males ; and 

 they used it, in addition to the beak, as a weapon of offence, while 

 they whirled themselves about twenty or thirty times in four 

 or five minutes, making a noise with their pinions like a rattle. 

 The mien was fine and the walk stately, the birds being seen 

 singly or in pairs ; the nest was a heap of palm-leaves a foot or 

 more high, the single large egg was incubated by both parents. 

 The food is said to have consisted of seeds and leaves, and a 

 stone as big as a hen's egg was often found in the stomach. 



Fam. XI. Didunculidae. Didunculus strigirostris, the Manu- 

 mea or Ked Bird of the islands of Upolu, Savai, and Tutuila in 

 the Samoan group, is glossy greenish-black, with chestnut back, 

 rump, wing-coverts, tail and under tail-coverts, but browner wing- 

 quills and abdomen. The hooked and toothed bill is orange, the 

 feet are reddish, and the naked orbits red. The sexes are similar, 

 the young entirely brown. First made known by Strickland on 

 the strength of its discovery in the autumn of 1839 by Peale 



1 Phil. Trans, clix. 1869, pp. 327-362 ; clxviii. 1879, pp. 448-451. Further 

 details will be found in Strickland and Melville's work The Dodo and its Kindred. 

 London, 1848, pp. 46-56 ; A. Newton, Diet. Birds, 1896, pp. 887-892. 



