iX.—A Skeleton of the Dodo (DIDUS INEPTUS) 
by 
E. C. Chubb, Curator of the Durban Museum. 
Wirn Puate XVII. 
HE Durban Museum has recently acquired a practically complete 
mounted skeleton of Dodo, Didus ineptus, Linn. It was 
purchased from the heirs of the late Mr. E. Therioux of Mauritius, 
through the assistance of Mr. Geo. Antelme, who takes an interest in 
the Museum at Port Louis, Mauritius. In the possession of tail bones, 
certain bones in the wings, and a rib on the second pelvic vetebra, the 
Durban Museum skeleton appears to be more complete than any of the 
others that have been figured or described, and consequently furnishes 
some additions to our knowledge of the osteology of this most 
interesting bird. 
It may be as well to recall that the remains of Dodo preserved in 
museums consist of four other mounted skeletons, in the British 
Museum (Natural History), the Cambridge University Museum, the 
Paris Museum and the Mauritius Museum respectively ; a foot and 
head in the Oxford Museum (relics of a complete stuffed specimen 
which, unfortunately, was attacked by insects and” in consequence 
destroyed in 1755); a foot in the British Museum (Natural History) 
and a head in the Copenhagen Museum. It is possible that there are 
also some odd bones in various museums, for the Durban Museum has 
for about ten years been in possession of an incomplete pelvis and a 
number of vertebree and leg-bones. Not one of the five existing 
skeletons is that of an individual bird. They have been reconstructed 
at different times from bones that have been found on the Island 
during the last sixty years, the chief source being a certain marsh, the 
Mare aux Songes. This site has been very thoroughly explored, and 
it is highly improbable that any considerable number of Dodo bones 
will in future be obtained there or elsewhere. 
Although the general attitude of the Durban Museum skeleton | 
might be improved upon, there is no doubt that it has been very care-/ 
fully put together, and it is evident that considerable knowledge has \ 
been brought to bear upon the work. 
In a paper read before the Zoological Society of London in 1892, 
and published in the “ Transactions,” vol. xiii, Sir Edward Newton 
and Dr. Gadow described and figured a skeleton, reconstructed by 
(97) 
Annals of the Durban Museum, Vol. II, part 3, issued 31st March, 1919. 
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