OSTEOLOGY OF THE SOLITAIRE. 353 



bones ; while a third was picked up by Captain Barclay at the 

 same time. Mr. Newton urged Mr. Jenner, the magistrate of 

 Ilodriguez, to make a more thorough search of the caves, and in 

 1865 this gentleman sent no less than eighty-one specimens to 

 Mauritius. News of this find reached England during the 

 meeting of the British Association at Birmingham, and, prompted 

 by Mr. P. L. Sclater, that body made a grant to aid further 

 research, and in 1866 a very large collection of the bones of this 

 bird, amounting to nearly two thousand sjjecimens, was obtained. 



'■'■ Pezophaps differs from Dkhuiculus quite as much as Didus 

 does, but it is nearly allied to the latter 



" In PezoijJiaps the bones of the wing are made massive and 

 smoother than in Didus. The most remarkable thing about them 

 howevei', is the presence of a bony knob^ on the radial side of the 

 metacarpal, unlike what is found in any other bird. Tt is large 

 in some of the specimens, supposed to have belonged to old males, 

 but very little developed in the presumed females. It is more or 

 less spherical, pedunculate, and consists of a callus-like mass 

 with a roughened surface, exceedingly like that of diseased bone, 

 and was probably covered by a horny integument. It is situated 

 immediately beyond the proximal end and the index, which last 

 would appear to be thrust away by it to some extent. It answers 

 most accurately and most unexpectedly to Leguat's description of 

 it : ' L'os de I'aileron grossit a I'extremite, et forme sous la plume 

 une petite masse rondc com me une balle de mousquet.' {Vide 

 ante., p. 78.) ... . 



"A comparison of the entire skeleton shows that Pezojdmps is 

 in some degree, and perhaps on the whole, intermediate between 

 Didus and the normal Columhce 



" Strickland was amply justified in arriving at the conclusion 

 that the Solitaire was generically distinct from the Dodo " 



Professor A. and Sir Edw^ard Newton remark upon the dift'erent 

 causes of extinction of species within historic time. This, when 

 effected by men's agency, is seldom done by man's will ; and 

 various cases are cited to support this opinion. In extirpating 



See photograph of skeleton, frontispiece, 



A A 



