72 Miscellaneous. 



M. Heude having allowed mc to take the description of his bird, 

 which is unique in his collection, I hasten to send it to you, and 

 regard it as my duty to dedicate to him this new species, under the 

 name of Paradoxornis Heudei. 



Total length 18 centims. 



Length of the tail 9| „ 



„ of the closed wing 57 millims. 



„ of the tarse 24 „ 



Bill yellow ; feet of a yellowish grey ; claws grey. 



Tail long, much graduated, with the feathers black, terminated 

 by a broad white spot ; the median feathers unicolorous yellomsh 

 grey. 



Wings short and round, with the quill-feathers black, surrounded 

 by a margin of reddish grey ; lessor coverts of a cinnamon fulvous, 

 as well as the feathers of the insertion of the wings. 



Stalks of the rectrices and remiges black above, white beneath. 



Head grey in the middle ; two broad black streaks above the eyes, 

 like eyebrows ; neck grey ; parotic region of a rosy grey ; back rosy 

 grey, with a few elongated brown spots ; rump reddish yellow. 



Throat white ; breast of a vinous rosy colour ; flanks reddish ; 

 middle of the belly whitish, as are also the subcaudals. 



M. Heude killed this pretty bird in December 1871 among the 

 reeds (Phragmites) which border a lake of the Kiang-Sou ; these it 

 traverses in little flocks. According to that naturalist, it possesses 

 an agreeable voice and has the climbing (or rather clinging) habits 

 of the allied genera — Comptes liendus, June 3, 1872, p. 1449. 



Imestifjations on Fossil Birds. By M. A. Milne-Edwards. 



At the moment when my investigations upon fossil birds approach 

 their termination, and before the last part is given to the public, I 

 will ask the Academy's permission to explain in a few words the re- 

 sults at which I have arrived during these studies, which have lasted 

 fuUy twelve years. 



I believe I have demonstrated, by the examination of the bones 

 which have been found in the recent deposits in the Mascarene 

 Islands, and which belong, for the most part, to extinct species, such 

 as the dodo, the solitaire, the ApJiaiuiptenjx, Ftdica Neivtoni, large 

 Parrots, &c., that these islands have once been part of a vast extent 

 of land, that these lands by little and little and by a slow depression 

 have been hidden under the waters of the ocean, only leaving visible 

 some of their highest points, such as the islands of Mauritius, 

 Ilodriguez, and Bourbon. These islands have served as a refuge for 

 the last representatives of the terrestrial population of these ancient 

 epochs ; but the species, confined in too limited a space and exposed 

 to aU causes of destruction, have disappeared by degrees ; and man 

 has in some measure aided in their extinction. 



Madagascar evidently was not in communication with these islands ; 

 for when Europeans visited them for the first time, they did not find 



