OSTEOLOGY OF THE DODO. 75 
the keel, from the outer and posterior angle of the sternum, distant from the costal 
margin. In old Plovers the entolateral process joins the contiguous angle of the sternal 
body, and converts the inner notch into a foramen. 
In the breast-bone of the Dodo we plainly discern the Columbine modification of the 
Gallinaceous type, simplified in the minor development of those parts relating adaptively 
to the power of flight, and expanded and excavated for the support of the larger gizzard 
with its heavier grindstones', 
In comparing the pelvis of Didwnculus and Goura (Pl. XXIV. fig. 5) with that of 
Didus (Pl. XIX. fig. 1), the correspondences are :—in the general shape, proportions and 
disposition of the ilia; in the articulation therewith of the last pair of moveable ribs, and 
of the short straight confluent pleurapophyses of the three succeeding sacral vertebree ; 
then follow, as in Didus, three vertebree without pleurapophyses, these reappearing in 
the next two with their extremities converging to abut against a prominence of the inner 
surface of the ilium in the same relative position. The difference here is in the two 
equal and more slender rib-buttresses, in place of the single stronger one, which is the 
more common structure in Didus; but in Gowra I have noted an instance in which it 
agreed with the Didunculus on the left side, and with Didus on the right, in the last- 
specified character. In the Crown-pigeons, also, there is an indication of the transverse 
ridge marking off the under part of the centrum of the first sacral from the rest, and those 
that follow are less expanded than in the Dodlets; moreover in Didwnculus they show 
a median canal instead of a ridge, while the ridge is feebly indicated here and there and 
there is no canal in Gowra. In neither Didunculus nor Goura do the sacral centrums 
behind the last rib-abutments diminish in breadth so suddenly as in Didus: in both the 
winged Pigeons the hinder part of the pelvic cavity is relatively deeper and narrower 
than in Didus ; in both, also, the upper and anterior concave tracks of the ilia are deeper; 
and in Didunculus the mesial borders do not attain the neural crest, but leave a pair of 
open longitudinal canals at that part of the pelvis; in Gowra those margins reach the 
neural crest, but do not overtop it at any part. In Gowra the acetabula are more in 
advance of a median position than in Didunculus, Columba magnifica, or Didus. Although 
the ischiadic foramina are completed by terminal confluence of the ilium and ischium in 
1 The habit of the Dodo to ayail itself of extraneous crushers to a gallinaceous or struthious degree, is attested 
by the following fruit of the extensive research of the learned and conscientious author of the Article Dopo, in 
the ‘ Penny Cyclopedia : ’— 
«* About 1638, as I walked London streets, I saw the picture of a strange fowle hong out upon a cloth; and 
myselfe with one or two more then in company went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a great 
fowle, somewhat bigger than the largest Turkey-cock, and so legged and footed, but stouter and thicker and of 
a more erect shape, coloured before like the breast of a young cock feasan, and on the back of a dunn or deere 
coulour. The keeper called it a Dodo, and in the end of a chymney in the chamber there lay a heap of large 
pebble-stones, whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as big as nutmegs, and the keeper told us shee eats 
them (conducing to digestion).” Sir Thos. Brown’s Works (Wilkin’s Edition, 4 vols.: London, 1836), vol. i. 
p- 369; vol. ii. p. 173. 
L2 
