366 AprENDix. 



voyages. This seeras to be all that one can, with any probability, 

 guess concerning its mode of life. Wliy, however, was this 

 Waterhen so gigantic'? Why was this gigantic animal just 

 destined for such a small place on our globe — a place where arose 

 neither great rivers nor extensive marshes 1 Why should it be in 

 colour entirely white, and differ in that respect from all the 

 species of the family '?] Human knowledge fails to answer these 

 questions, and they will, accordingly, it is probable, always 

 remain riddles to us, the more so as this magnificent creature, 

 like so many others, is withdrawn for ever from our gaze. 



" We have still another question to decide : How comes it that 

 Leguat is the only writer who has observed this gigantic Water- 

 hen of Mauritius, while the voj'agers who visited the island 

 before him speak of several other most remarkable birds which 

 they met with, but not this one? To explain the fact, one must 

 evidently infer that the voyagers only made mention of the 

 productions whicli they met with in the ueiglibourhood of their 

 anchoring-places, and that the giant bird of Leguat did not 

 frequent those places, because there w'ere no marshes. This is 

 no doubt the case with the harbour on the south-east coast, where 

 the ships regular!}' come to land, and where stood in Leguat's 

 time, and lung after, the only port in the island. 



" All travellers report that the ground then was stony and 

 unfruitful. It was at this place that the companions of Van 



1 Since Professor Schlegel's paper was written, attention Las been 

 called to the \Mnte Galliimle, figured in Pliillip's Voyage to Botany 

 Bay^ Loudon, 1789 (p. 273), and in White's Journal of a Voyage to 

 New South Wales, London, 1790 (p. 2o8)— a bird which is said to 

 have formerly inhabited Lord Howe's and Norfolk Islands. This 

 species Dr. Von Pelzeln refers (Sitz. Akad, Wien., xli, p. 331) 

 to the genus Noloruis (cf. Ibis, 18G(), pp. 422-423) ; and Mr. G. R. 

 Gray {Ibis, 1862, p. 240) to that of Porphyrio. We know of only two 

 specimeas still existing, one at Vienna, obtained from tLe Leverian 

 Museum, the other in the Derby Museum, at Liverpool, from Bullock's 

 collection. (This last example, according to Professor A. Newton, 

 seems to be an albino of the ordinary Australian Porphyrio.) It 

 would be very interesting to know if the bird is still found on either of 

 the islands named. It is the Gallinalu alba of Latham. (Editor of Jbis, 

 Dr. P. L. Sclater.) 



