Xll EDITOItS PREFACE. 



Having, as in duty bound, first of all made his 

 too inadequate acknowledgments of what he owes 

 to his friendly helpers across the seas, the Editor 

 must now proceed to offer his no less sincere thanks 

 to those of his own countrymen who have communi- 

 cated so freely to him the results of their patient 

 investigations of all branches of science treated of 

 in the following notes. 



Pre-eminent among zoologists and ornithologists, 

 the Professor of Zoology at Cambridge (where Strick- 

 land and Melville's collection finds an honoured 

 position), and his brother, Sir E. Newton (to whose 

 indefatigable explorations the world owes the re- 

 habilitation of Dodo, Solitaire, Aphanapteryx, and 

 their congeners), have furnished far more material 

 for notes and explanatory illustration of Leguat's 

 text than the Editor has been able to treat properly 

 or satisfactorily within the space at his command. 

 Moreover, the learned Professor and his brother 

 have taken much personal trouble to secure for the 

 Editor, not only access to the rich store of osteolo- 

 gical remains of the Mascarene birds in the museum 

 (which, by the way, is constantly acquiring fresh 

 trouvailles from the cave earths of Rodriguez and 

 Mauritius), but also a photograph^ of the skeleton of 

 the bird which has conduced to render Leguat's 

 name immortal. These scientists, so profoundly 

 skilled in the subject of most enticing interest in 

 Leguat's history, have also assisted the Editor by 



1 The photograph taken for Mr. Bidwell in N(n'embcr 1889, 

 has been re^jrodiiced by Messrs. Morgan and Kidd, of Richmond. 



