334 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [part iv. 



The Diduncidus digirostris, a hook-billed ground-pio-eon, 

 found only in the Samoa Islands, is so peculiar in its structure 

 that it is considered to form a distinct family. 



Family 85 — DIDID^.— (2 Genera, 3 Species.) 



General Distribution. 



The birds which constitute this family are now all extinct ; 

 but as numerous drawings are in existence, taken from living 

 birds some of which were exhibited in Europe, and a stuffed 

 specimen, fragments of which still remain, was in the Ashmolean 

 Museum at Oxford down to 1755, they must be classed among 

 recent, as opposed to geologically extinct species. The Dodo 

 (Didus ineptus) a large, unwieldy, flightless bird, inhabited 

 Mauritius down to the latter part of the 17th century ; and an 

 allied form, the Solitaire {Pezophaps solitaria), was found only 

 in the island of Eodriguez, where it survived about a century 

 later. Old voyagers mention a Dodo also in Bourbon, and a 

 rude figure of it exists ; but no remains of this bird have been 

 found. Almost complete skeletons of the Dodo and Solitaire 

 have, however, been recovered from the swamps of Mauritius and 

 the caves of Eodriguez, proving that they were both extremely 

 modified forms of pigeon. These large birds were formerly very 

 abundant, and being excellent eating and readily captured, the 

 early voyagers to these islands used them largely for food. As they 

 could be caught by man, and very easily by dogs, they were soon 

 greatly diminished in numbers ; and the introduction of swine, 

 which ran wild in the forests and fed on the eggs and young 

 birds, completed their extermination. 



The existence in the Mascarene Islands of a group of such 

 remarkable terrestrial birds, with aborted wings, is parallel to 

 that of the Apteryx and Dinornis in New Zealand, the Casso- 

 waries of Austro-Malava. and the short-winged Eails of New 



