D. 



ON EXTINCT BIRDS OF THE MASCARENE ISLANDS. 



A VALUABLE paper was contributed, 31st October 18-37, to the 

 Eoyal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam ( Verskujen en Jfededee- 

 lingen cler KoninJdiJlce Aludemie van Wefenschappen. Afdeeling 

 " Kafum-l-unde", vol. vii; p. 116, which was originally written in 

 Dutch ; but a translation into German of part of it appeared in 

 the Journal filr OrnithoJogie for 1858) by Professor H. Schlegel, 

 the Director of the National Museum of the Netherlands, "On 

 Extinct Gigantic birds of the Mascarene Islands." The transla- 

 tion of Schlegel's paper by Mr. Hessels was forwarded by Professor 

 Newton of Cambridge to Dr. Sclater for reproduction in the pages 

 of the Ibis, where it appeared in April 1866, shortly after the 

 discovery of the Didine remains near Mahebourg. (Vide Ibis, 

 New Series, vol. i, pp. 146-168.) 



Professor Schlegel announced that hitherto the recent investi- 

 gations respecting the large birds which had become extirpated in 

 Bourbon, Mauritius, and Rodriguez had entirely overlooked some 

 species, one of which, in height at least, equalled the African 

 Ostrich, and which did not belong to the Dodos, but to quite 

 another order of birds. 



"Remams of these birds have not hitherto been found ; but we 

 know' them from descriptions and a representation, which perhaps 

 may, if rightly understood, give a better and more complete idea 

 of these beings than the obscure sketch which can be obtained of 

 the New Zealand Moas through their numerous remaining bones. 

 The desci'iption and representation of the largest species, called 

 by Leguat ' Geant', is given by that traveller in his narrative. 

 {Vide ante, pp. 209, 210.) 



"Among naturalists Leguat has, hitherto, been known only by 

 his account of the Solitaire of Rodriguez, but everyone has 

 accepted it without hesitation, and the remains of that bird, 

 since discovered, have proved the exactness of his statements. 



