ON EXTINCT BIRDS OF THE MASCARENE ISLANDS. 361 



" 3rd, that the gape by no means extends, as in the struthious 

 birds, under the eye. 



" 4:th, that the feet are covered over their whole length and 

 breadth with large plates, and not partially or entirely with scales, 

 as seen in the struthious birds. 



" 5th, that in Leguat's description and figure there is no appear- 

 ance of the peculiar form of the featliers of the struthious birds, 

 whereas he makes this to be so distinctly seen in his Solitaire. 



" 6th, that this bird lived in marshy places, where struthious 

 birds do not abide. 



" 7th, that it could fly. 



" 8th, that, lastly, one had been carried away by a storm from 

 Mauritius to Rodi-iguez, more than a hundred (about tliree 

 hundred English) miles distant— a sea-voyage which such heavy 

 birds as the Stntthionidce could not possibly perform. 



" Strickland^ has perpetually expressed the opinion that this 

 bird has sim})ly been a Flamingo, although the description of it 

 gave him the impression of a Stork. This opinion is really as 

 strange as that of Hamel ; for, 1st, the physiognomy, or, if you 

 will, the Jiahittts of the bird is quite different. 



"2nd. Neither the figure nor the description of the bill show any 

 resemblance to that of the Flamingo.- 



" 3rd. The neck of the Flamingo is much longer, and very much 

 thinner than in our bird. 



" 4th. Flamingos have a tail which is much shorter, has a dif- 

 ferent shape, and is never carried erect. 



1 The Dodo and its Kindred^ etc., pp. 60 and 64. Strickland's own 

 words are : " The fact is that these Geans are evidently (notwithstanding 

 the Stork-like aspect of Leguat's plate at p. 171) Flamiur/us." 



2 Leguat's expression, " ils ont uu bee d'oye", should evidently, and es- 

 pecially from the addition of " mais un peau plus pointu". be understood 

 as having reference to the form in general, and not to the lamdUe, which 

 the bill of the Flamingo has in common with that of the Geese. When 

 Leguat says of his Solitaire (i, p. 98), " les males ont les pieds de coq d'Inde, 

 etlebec aussi", we, in like manner do not conclude that these parts were 

 formed exactly as in the Turkey, but that they had a general resem- 

 blance. [May not Leguat have meant that these birds had feet like 

 the Avifi Indica, as represented by Collaert? Viile Tufra. — S. V. O.] 



