Prof. R. Owen on the Solitaire. 95 
Pezophaps Didus 
solitaria. ineptus. 
ft. in. lin. ft. in. lin. 
Length of vertebral axis, from tip of 
’ beak to end of coccyx, following the 
CEEVOS 25: « 5's Sac sroeetetare Mita sicleia, 6 510° Mas. 211 0 3.2 0 
Length of vertebral axis, from tip of 
beak to end of coccyx, following the 
GUEV DS, Ye cee. eet ental aha fem, 2 i | 
Height in easy standing position ...... Mas, 2 ae U zee .O 
Height in easy standing position ...... Fem. 2°20 
Length of leg, from proximal end of 
FDP RO EDS: « oa dal Shar enefiades Geavakd oa) 2 Mas. 1 4 6 1g 3, 0 
Length of leg, from proximal end of 
PERT ATU IMEC s 3.c es cfderne eee tren se oo + Fem. 1 1 0 
The Solitaires were found living in great numbers by the 
colony of Huguenots who settled in the island of Rodriguez, 
under their leader M. Francois Leguat, in 1691. 
Pezophaps, according to the testimony of Leguat, laid but 
one egg at the breeding-season ; and the same was probably 
the case with Didus, as it is with the existing species of fruit- 
eating doves (Carpophaga) and the passenger pigeons (Ecto- 
astes) . 
. The Moas appear to have been similarly restricted, as their 
living representatives, the Kivis, also are, in the number of 
the eggs of each brood. 
The condition of the existence of Pezophaps, and probably 
that of its flightless structure, was the absence of any extirpa- 
ting enemy in the island to which the species was restricted. 
Feeding on the date, the plantain, and other tropical products 
of arich vegetation encumbering the soil when ripe and fallen, 
their flesh was sapid as well as nutritious ; and the early Hugue- 
not colonists commenced the work of extirpation, which their 
successors and the quadrupeds (cats and pigs) which they 
introduced completed. 
In assigning the origin of the species Pezophaps solitarta 
to the operation of a primary law, by way of direct 
creation of a primitive pair, the osseous tumour on the 
wrist of the male, and the fore pair of limbs in both sexes, 
framed on a pattern fitting them to exercise the faculty of flight 
and for no other kind of locomotion on land, but of too small 
a size for that end, are among the incidents of this ‘ thauma- 
togeny,” or inconceivable mode of genesis. 
The other alternative is a reference of the species to the 
operation of a secondary law, by no means implying disbelief 
in, or involving denial of, the Lawgiver. In speculating on 
the mode of operation of such law, the following facts pre- 
sent themselves :— 
