360 APPENDIX. 



Besides this, it appears also, from the numerous observations 

 which he communicates on known natural objects, that he was, 

 as an amateur and for his time, an attentive and accurate 

 observer, that he consulted in his investigations a multitude of 

 works on natural history, that by comparing them mutually, and 

 with nature, he tried to arrive at truth, and that he was anything 

 but a servile I'epeater of another's words." 



After having placed, as he thinks, tlie truthfulness of Leguat 

 beyond all doubt, Professor Schlegel describes the bird, which 

 he takes to be an unknown gigantic species, quoting from 

 Leguat : " On voit beaucoup de certains oiseaux qu'on appelle 

 Ge'ans, etc " (see p. 210). This description is accom- 

 panied by a figure which represents the bird at about one twenty- 

 fifth of its natural size. He further explains this description and 

 figure, and proceeds, as follows : — 



"Let us, meanwhile, first examine what has been the opinion 

 of other naturalists about this bird. Hamel and Strickland are, 

 so far as I know, the only persons who have offered their opinions 

 on the subject.' They had not the least doubt as to the existence 

 of this large animal ; nor can such be possible, since the accounts 

 of Leguat are too precise, and he -observed it on two islands at a 

 considerable distance from each other ; but they have, in our 

 ojjinion, completely mistaken this bird. 



" Hamel" takes it for a struthious bird, which, as well as the 

 Solitaire of Rodriguez, has been exterminated since Leguat's 

 time. Our reasons why this opinion is entirely incorrect are the 

 following : — 



" 1st, because the Geant of Leguat has a perfect tail with quills 

 and under tail-coverts, which reach to its end, and that this tail is 

 carried erect, which is never found among the struthious birds. 



" 2nd, that the toes are extraordinarily long and slender, and 

 not short and very thick as in all known struthious birds. 



1 We find also in Valentyn (v. ii, p. 152) some remarks on tbe Geant 

 of Leguat, evidently derived from that author himself. {Ante, p. 210.) 



2 Der Dodo, die Einsiedler und dcr erdichtcte Nazarvogel, in Bulletin 

 Phya.-Matli. de VAcademie de St. Petemhourg, 1848, vol. vii, Nos. 5, 6, 

 pp. G5-9G. 



