350 APPENDIX. 



struct more completely the extinct population of this region, and 

 to estimate its relations with the New Zealand fauna, of which it 

 is, perhaps, only a branch." 



MR. EDWARD NEWTON'S VISIT.^ 



Mr. Edward Newton, after a short visit to Rodriguez, 

 October 30, 1864, iu H.M.S. Rapid., wrote :— " The country was 

 covered with grass pretty well eaten down by cattle ; here and 

 there were scrubby trees — mostly the resinous hois cV Olive; a 

 Vacoa {Pandamis sp.), different, of course, from anything in 

 Mauritius ; and an acacia, very like A. lehhek. The island is very 

 ■well depicted in Mr. Higgins' drawings,^ engraved in The Dodo 

 and its Kindred (Plates ill and iv). It may be generally 

 described as a long-backed range of hills, running from east to 

 west, and sending out spurs to the sea-coast. The height in the 

 centre may be from 1,000 to 1,500 feet. 



" There is no forest, so far as I could learn ; and the tradition 

 is that it was destroyed by fire some forty or fifty years ago; but 

 this story, I think, must be incorrect, as otherwise, in so short a 

 time, there would surely be some traces of it left, whereas there 

 are none. Moreovei", I cannot find that Leguat speaks of it as 

 being anything then beyond what it now is ; and the place of his 

 settlement, with the trees dotted about, as drawn, baiTing the 

 Solitaires, just as it is now. 



" I soon saw the ' yellow bird', which a negi'o who was with me 

 called a ' zozo ' {i.e., oiseau) ' du p«ys', and declared at first to be 

 the only bird iu the island. He afterwards admitted the existence 

 of a Perruclie, but that, he said, was all." (The yellow bird 

 was perfectly tame, and a distinct and well-marked species of 

 Foudia, F. flavicans,^ with a very pretty song not unlike that of 

 the goldfinch.) " It is exceedingly numerous, and I saw a flock 



1 Ibis, 1865, p. 166 et seq. 



2 See photo -lithograph reproduction at p. 46. 



3 Pro. Zoo. Soc, 1865, p. 46 ei seq. 



