INTRODUCTION. ll 



found that no reefs extend more than five or six 

 miles from land. 



It was not until 1864 that Mr. E. Newton, then 

 Auditor-General in Mauritius, visited Rodriguez, 

 and obtained some more bones ; and in the two 

 following years a large quantity of bones was 

 obtained by Mr. Jenner, for Mr. Edward Newton, 

 and forwarded to Cambridge, where Professor 

 Alfred Newton, his brother, and himself succeeded 

 in making an admirable, though not altogether 

 perfect, restoration of the skeleton of the long 

 lost Solitaire, the photograph of which appears in 

 the frontispiece. The extraordinary fidelity of 

 Leguat's account of the bird was confirmed in 

 almost every point. The very singular knob on 

 the wing, caused by injuries received in fighting, 

 fully bore out the accuracy of Leguat as to the 

 pugnacity of these most curious birds, which seem 

 to have fought by buffeting with their pinions like 

 pigeons. 



When, in the year 1874, the British Government 

 dispatched an expedition to observe the Transit of 

 Venus at Rodriguez, by the request of the Royal 

 Society some naturalists were sent to accompany the 

 astronomers. Dr. Balfour as botanist and geologist, 

 Mr. Gulliver, zoologist, and Mr. Slater, especially 

 deputed to examine the remains of extinct animals 

 in the caves.^ The results of these investigations were 



^ The Fhilosophical Transodions of the Royal Society, \6\. 168, 

 1879, reporting on the collections from Rodriguez, include The 

 Physical Features of Rodriguez by Is. B. Balfour, Sc.D. ; and 



c/2 



