ANCIENT FAUNA OF THE MASCARENE ISLANDS. 343 



"■ It seems to me, therefore, very probable that the rail whose 

 bones are yet found at Rodriguez is the same bird as that which 

 Leguat designated under the name of Gellnote ; and as its 

 anatomical characters do not allow of classifying it in any of the 

 genera formerly established, I shall denote it under the name of 

 Erythromachus, in order to record one of its peculiar manners 

 noticed by this traveller. The description which Leguat gives 

 tells us also that E rythromachus had a grey plumage for both 

 sexes, and a red border around the eye. 



" The different bones which we have been able to study indicate 

 to us the relative proportions of the principal parts of the body, and, 

 thanks to the description of Leguat, we can fill in the gaps which 

 palseontological science alone finds wanting, and thus characterise 

 the bird of Rodriguez : 



" Family, of Ocydromidce ; Genus, Erythromaclnis ; sp. Erytliro- 

 machus Leguati. . . . This bird ought to feed on worms, insects, 

 and molluscs. 



" The difference of beak j)revents Erythromachus being placed in 

 the same genus as Aplianapleryx, as well as the height of its feet. 

 From other considerations the vague genus, Aptoi'iiis, advocated 

 by M. de Selys-Longchamps, cannot be adopted." 



Butors or Herons. — •" The fossil remains submitted to my 

 examination," writes M. Milne-Edwards, " by Professor A. Newton, 

 enable me to determine also that the family of Herons, at the 

 present day unknown at Rodriguez, was formerly represented by 

 a singular species with a large head, massive beak, and short 

 feet : I have been able, almost entirely, to reconstruct the skeleton 

 of this wader, and I do not doubt that this bird was that which 

 Leguat mentions under the name of Bettor." {Vide ante, p. 210.) 

 " This bird is not a veritable Butor ; but its head is so large and 

 its feet so short that one understands how Leguat had referred it 

 to this species. . . . 



"The fossil skull of this Rodriguez bird presents the character- 

 istics of the Herons, but it is distinguished, by its massive 

 appearance, from all the other known species. 



" This new species has been named Ardea megacephala. 



" A fresh proof of the veracity of Leguat, and of the considerable 



