-1/4 DR. MTJRIE ON FREGILUPUS VARIUS. [Julie 10, 



13. On the Skeleton and Lineage of Fregilupus varius. 

 By Dr. James Murie, F.L.S. 



[Eeceived June 16, 1874.] 



(Plates LXI. & LXII.) 



History of the Bird. 



Preliminary Remarks.— By the zeal for ornithology and the urba- 

 nity of Prof. Newton, I am stimulated to render a more ample account 

 of the skeleton of Fregilupus belonging to him, and briefly com- 

 mented on by me in the 'Ibis' of 1873*. As therein mentioned, 

 there is no representative of the type, in skin or otherwise, in England 

 of this singular so-called Madagascar form, save the skeleton in 

 question. The literature of its anatomy is confined to my own curt 

 osteological remarks. I now figure the mounted skeleton, of natural 

 size, and in addition, in a second Plate, such characteristic sketches 

 of the separated hones as may better enable comparisons to be insti- 

 tuted. 



This speci.nea (as I am informed), was given to Prof. Newton by 

 the late M. Jules Verreaux, who said that he shot the bird from 

 which it was preserved in the island of Reunion many years since 

 (1832?). The species is now to all appearance extinct, and, not- 

 withstanding what has been said of it, seems to have been confined to 

 that one island. The fact is that, if Fregilupus is not quite extinct, 

 it evidently is fast becoming so ; for recent writers aver it is no 

 longer to be obtained in its old haunts, and somewhere about 

 twenty years have elapsed since any thing positive concerning its 

 existence has been authenticated-)-. Thus I am the more impressed 

 with the necessity for a published record accompanied by osteo- 

 logical illustration. If, as is to be feared, before long it shall be 

 looked upon as a bird of the past — gone like the Dodo, Solitaire, 

 Aphanapteryx, &c. — then it would be a pity to let the present op- 

 portunity slip. Moreover this skeleton and another said to have 

 been deposited in the Paris Museum, having both been procured by 

 an ornithologist of reputation and prepared by his own hands, have a 

 stamp of certainty about them enhancing their value. This extreme 

 paucity of material, and possibility of no future supply, may yet 

 render them invaluable historical examples, marking the progress of 

 avian extinction in the Mascarene Islands. 



Original observations pertaining to the bird are few and not 

 very satisfactory in substance. Indeed I find nearly all the tra- 

 vellers' accounts to be but a repetition of the earlier imperfect 

 notices, these same being looked upon rather suspiciously by 

 those best qualified to estimate their worth. For the sake of bring- 

 ing within easy compass the known history of Fregilupus, I insert in 



* " On the Uptipidte," torn. cit. p. 1200. 

 t Vide footnote from Schlegel. p. 479. 





