

The Dodo and its Kindred. 65 



flight, somewhat more developed than in the Dodo. \ It is now 

 rendered certain from osteological characters, that the Solitaire 

 was allied to the Dodo and not to the ostrich. 



The bones hitherto found are not of a very decisive character, 

 but they indicate analogies with the Dodo — and "as far as we 

 can trace the points of agreement between these two extinct 

 birds, they are shared in common with the pigeons and exist in 

 no other knoicn families of birds." P. V. Strickland, in further 

 confirmation of his views, refers "to the feeding on dates or 

 plantains, the monogamous habits, the laying of only one egg, 

 and the inability of the nestling to provide for itself." The first 

 of these characters is not found in birds of prey — nor the three 

 last in gallinaceous birds, but the whole of them are consistent 

 with the habits of that anomalous family, the Columbiada. The 

 sternal keel of the Solitaire, and the strong muscles of the breast 

 imply that its wing although too short for flight, was an arm of 

 defense. 



On the whole, there appears to be good evidence, that Rodriguez 

 was once inhabited by a splendid family of birds of the Colum- 

 bine family, but of a larger size than any which now walk the 

 earth. They were the cotemporaries of the Dodos, that other 

 colossal and clumsy family of the Mauritius, and both might 

 have remained to this day, had not the destroying arm of man 

 been raised against them, so that they have been, for two hundred 

 years, exterminated. 



Brevipennate birds in the Isle of Bourbon. 



"This volcanic island lies about one hundred miles south of 

 Mauritius, and was inhabited by two species of birds whose in- 

 ability to fly, and their consequent rapid extinction, bring them 



taire of Rodriguez." 



Castl 



Mauritius 



of land fowl, both small and great, plentie of Doves, great Parrats 

 and such like ; and a great fowl of the bigness of a Turkie, very 

 fat and so short winged that they cannot tlie, beeing white, and 

 jn a manner tame ; and so are all other fowles, as having not 

 been .troubled nor feared with shot. Our men did beat them 

 down with sticks and stones." 



In 1682, Bcmtekoe, a Dutch voyager, found in Bourbon, geese, 

 Parrots, pigeons and other game, al > Dod-eersen, which have but 

 small wings, and so far from being able to fly, they were so fat 

 that they could scarcely walk, and when they tuied to run, they 

 dragged their underside on the ground. This navigator appears 

 to have confounded this bird with the Dodo. 



Carre, a Frenchman, in 1668, saw in Bourbon the so-called 

 Oisseau Solitaire a lover of solitude and frequenting the most 



Second Series, Vol. VII, No. 19, Jan., 1849. 9 



