368 APPENDIX. 



" It remains for us to inquire whether the Geant of Leguat 

 was also found in the neighbouring island of Reunion or 

 elsewhere. The only writer who makes mention of a gigantic 

 marsh-bird in Reunion, and this nnder the self-same name 



of Geant, is the Marquis du Quesne In his work, 



according to Leguat, the Geants are named among the birds of 

 Bourbon. (See ante, p. 44.) That by these Geants the Solitaires 

 of Mascaregne (Reunion) cannot be meant, appears by their 

 manner of living, and by the taste of their flesh. To determine 

 them more precisely is not very possible on account of the 

 incompleteness of Du Quesne's account ; but this still shows that 

 there lived in Bourbon a gigantic marsh-bird, which, like the 

 Dodo, has long ago vanished, and which probably was of the 

 same species as the Geant of Leguat, or related to it, since it 

 lived by rivers and lakes ; and these, with marshes, form the abode 

 of Waterhens." 



Professor Schlegel thns places in the system, with the follow- 

 ing attributes, the gigantic birds he has described : — 



" Gallinula (leguatia) gigantea. ' Le Geant,'' Leguat, Voyage, 

 ii, p. 72, fig. ' Le Geant,'' Du Quesne, aptid Leguat, op. cit., i, 

 p. 55. (X) '■ Straussartiger Vogel,'' Hamel, Bulletin Acad. St. 

 Petersh., viii, Nos. 5 and 6 (pp. 65-96). ' Flamingo,^ Strickland, 

 The Dido and its Kindred, p. 50, note, 



" Stature, six feet high. Body, not heavier than that of a goose. 

 Wings pretty short, but fit for flight. Feathers of the tibia, 

 reaching pretty close to the tarsus. Toes long and quite free, 

 those in front about as long as the tarsus. Upper mandible 

 extended in a plate reaching beyond the eye. General colour 

 white, with a reddish spot under the wing. Colour of the feet 

 and bill unknown, but probably not very remarkable, as the 

 description does not mention it, 



^^ Hah. Mauritius, perhaps Reunion (Bourbon); once accidentally 

 met with in Rodriguez. 



" Observed with certainty only by Leguat in 1694. Since that 

 time not remarked again, and evidently long ago completely 

 extirpated. 



" Seems to represent the Crane-type among the Waterhens." 



