344 APPENDIX. 



change which has taken place in the avifauna of Rodriguez in the 

 course of only two centuries, has been furnished by the bones of 

 some nocturnal birds^ whose existence I have determined. At 

 the present time no bird of prey is known in this locality ; but 

 when Leguat resided there, the nocturnal rapacious birds were in 

 sufficiently great numbers to assist actively in the destruction of 

 the rats witli which the island was infested. (See p. 212.) 



" Mr. E. Newton has recovered in the caves of Rodriguez some 

 bones, b}' whose help we can describe the size and affinities of these 

 Strigides. These bones belong to two species; one of these, 

 sufficiently characterised by a tibia and metatarsus, appears to me 

 to belong to the genus sparrow-owl, ov Athene. The bones do not 

 quite correspond with those o( At//ene s^{perciliaris of Madagascar 

 (Vieillot), or A. PoUeni (Schlegel), or Ninox madagascariensis. 

 This owl probably constitutes a new species (it is possible it yet 

 survives at Rodriguez ?), and I propose to give it the name of 

 Strix (Athene) murivora. 



" Another species, less well characterised . . ., I am disposed 

 to consider as approaching the Eagle Owls (Grands Dues). 



"The other terrestrial birds of which Leguat makes mention as 

 living at Rodriguez are : Pigeons, paiTots, and a unique species of 

 the group of sparrows. If the pigeons have not entirely dis- 

 appeared from this island, tliey have become extremely rare, for 

 ]\Ir. Newton, in spite of his investigation, has not been able to see 

 a single individual of them ; but their former existence is de- 

 monstrated by the bone fragments which have been found associated 

 with those of the Solitaire Erythromachus, the herons and the 

 owls, of which I have just spoken. These remains permit me to 

 declare that, formerly, there were two species of pigeons. One 

 is evidently Turtur 2^icti(mtiis, which at present inhabits Mada- 

 gascar and Maui'itius, and it is probably to this which the passage 

 of Leguat refers, where this traveller says : ' the Pigeons here are 

 somewhat less than ours, etc. . . ." (Vide ante, -p. 82.) 



The second species of Pigeon has not been recorded by Leguat; 

 but, from the study of a sternum in good preservation, M. Milne- 

 Edwards finds it was different from Turtur, Vinago, and Eri/thrcena. 

 It belongs to a species of small size, hardly larger than Colomba 



