716 MR. A. NEWTON ON SOME DIDINE BONES. [Nov. 28, 
one species. On reading over Mr. Bartlett’s paper in the ‘ Proceedings 
of the Zoological Society’ for 1851 (p. 280), I must say that I do 
not think he shows any good reason for supposing that the true 
Dodo ever existed in Rodriguez, or that remains of more than one 
species have been found in that island ; and now that I have examined 
these bones, I am still more convinced of the fact. 
«I am writing to Mr. Jenner to beg him to look out for some of 
the smaller bones, which I feel certain must exist; and, with any 
luck, I think we ought to get a perfect skcleton some day.” 
It appeared to me that the information contained in this extract 
was too interesting to be kept to myself, and accordingly I communi- 
cated it to Section D, on Monday, | 1th September. Meanwhile our 
Secretary, Mr. Sclater, with that readiness to promote the cause of 
science which always distinguishes him, moved, and finally obtained, 
the appointment of a Committee of the Association to assist my 
brother, Mr. Edward Newton, in his researches, a liberal grant of 
money being placed at its disposal for the purpose. Not long after, 
the bones, which [ had been anxiously expecting, arrived, and I now 
have the satisfaction of exhibiting them to the Society—a satis- 
faction which is so lively that I do not feel humiliated by having 
to recant the opinion I entertained on a former occasion, and to ac- 
knowledge that Mr. Bartlett and myself were wrong in separating 
from the Pezophaps, or Didus solitarius, a so-called D. nazarenus, 
Bartlett (P. Z. S. 1851, p. 284)—the bones on which these two 
supposed species have been founded being in truth (as I now agree 
with my brother in believing) only specimens of the different sexes 
of the same species*. I have not come to this conclusion without 
great deliberation ; but it is impossible, I think, for any one to exa- 
mine carefully the present large series of specimens and yet maintain 
a contrary opinion. The corresponding bones agree so entirely in 
form, in relative proportion, in everything but size, that I am unable 
to resist the inference that they belong to one species only. This 
inference however leads to other considerations, some of which I sus- 
pect are of importance. 
The affinities of the extinct Didine birds to the order Columbe, 
first detected by Professor Reinhardt, have, since the publication of 
the well-known monograph of Messrs. Strickland and Melville, met 
with pretty general acceptance among ornithologists. But, so far as 
I know, none of the existing Co/umbe present any remarkable sexual 
distinctions, either in bulk or otherwise. As a group, the Pigeons 
are remarkably and, relatively to most birds, abnormally uniform 
in this respect. In the species to which the bones now exhibited 
belong, however, the contrary is most conspicuously the case; and 
one naturally turns to seek other instances in which a species differs 
* It is some consolation to me to find that Mr. Strickland (Trans. Zoo!. Soe. 
iv. pp. 187-196) was led into the same error—a pardonable one, I think, when 
the absence (from the series of eighteen bones described by him and Dr. Melville) 
of all bones of intermediate size, such as I now possess, is considercd. Mr. 
Strickland retained his name Pezophaps solitaria for the supposed larger species, 
assigning the smaller bones to another, which he called P. minor (p. 191). 
