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XVI. On some Bones of Birds allied to the Dodo, in the Collection of the Zoological 

 Society of London. By H. E. Strickland, F.G.S. 



Read April 27, 1852. 



An interesting series of bones, procured in the Island of Rodriguez in 1831, and 

 presented by Mr. Telfair to the Zoological Society, which were unfortunately mislaid for 

 twenty years, have lately been discovered by Mr. A. D. Bartlett among the Society's 

 stores. As they throw some important additional hght upon the osteology of the Dodo 

 and other extinct birds allied to it, I considered that a description and delineation of 

 these relics might be acceptable to the Society. It will also serve as a supplement to 

 the work published in 1848, by Dr. Melville and myself, on ' The Dodo and its Kindred,' 

 in which all the osteological materials, which were then available to us, were fully 

 described and delineated. 



An examination of these bones has shown that they must have belonged to more 

 than one species of bird, and has enabled us to extend this conclusion to the other 

 bones from the same locality, which were formerly referred to a single species. In order 

 to show this, it is requisite to give a brief resume of the entire evidence which we possess 

 on this subject. 



It will be remembered that the true Dodo, Didus ineptus, of which three heads and 

 two feet are preserved in our museums, appears to have been wholly confined to the 

 island of Mauritius. To expect a bird unable to fiy or to swim, to recur, specifically 

 identical, in the volcanic islet of Rodriguez, which is separated from Mauritius by three 

 hundred miles of ocean, would be contrary to those views of " Specific Centres of Crea- 

 tion," which are now becoming generally adopted as zoological truths. On the other 

 hand, the fact of the comparative proximity in geographical position of these two islands 

 would lead us to expect in Rodriguez a recurrence of the same organic structures, but 

 with specific or even generic modifications, which characterize the fauna of Mauritius. 

 Accordingly, it is highly interesting to find, that the bones of extinct birds which have 

 been found at Rodriguez do in fact present, at once, a close zoological afiinity and a 

 marked specific diversity, in their relations to that extraordinary bird, the Dodo, for 

 which Mauritius has long been celebrated. 



The bones of extinct birds which have been brought from Rodriguez are aUogether 

 eighteen in number, and were collected at two distinct periods. 



First, is a collection of six bones found in 1789, in a cavern in Rodriguez, where they 



