ON THE EXTINCT DIDINE BIRDS OF THE MASCARENE ISLANDS, 287 



Plate I. Development of Pagurus. 

 Pig. 1. First stage*. 

 Fig. 2. Second stage. The author gives this vrith the reservation stated, having taken it 



swimming in the open sea. c. Dorsal view of cephalon. a. Eye. b. Sup. ant. 



c. luf. ant. d. Mandible, ff. Posterior niaxilliped. h. First jsair of gnathopoda. 



i. Second pair. k. First pair of pereiopoda. /, m, n, o. Four posterior pairs of 



pereiopoda. ^, q, t. Pleopoda. «. Sixth pair of pleopoda, z. Telson. 

 Fig. 3. Third stage, representing the genus Glaucothoe of Milne-Edwards and Profo- 



])hi/Iax of Latreille. 7i. Penultimate pair of pereiopoda. o. Ultimate pair of 



pereiopoda. p. A pleopod. v. Sixth, or posterior pair of pleopoda. z. Telson. 



p. Pleon of an older specimen. 

 Fig. 4. Tioes oi Porccllana platt/cJieles. z. Telson. 



Plate II. 

 Fig. 1. Phyllosoma. Fig. 2. Zoe of Palinurus marinits. 



Plate HI. 

 Fig. 1. Typfon spongiosum, new species. Eeferences as above. 

 Fig. 2. AJphcus cdwardsii. Fig. 3. Kika edulis. 



Fig. 4. Homarus marinus. Development of flagellum to lower antenna. 

 Fig. 5. Tanais. h. First pair of gnathopoda, with branchial appendage attached. 



Supplement to a Report on the Extinct Didine Birds of the Mascarene 

 Islands. By Alfred NewtoNj M.A., F.L.S., Professor of Zoology 

 in the University of Cambridye. 



In 1865, at Birmingham, a Committee was appointed to assist the author's 

 brother, Mr. Edward Newton, Auditor General of Mauritius, in his researches 

 into the Didine Bii-ds of the Mascarene Islands. Last year, at Nottingham, 

 the Committee reported ; but their Eeport, printed in the Annual Yolume of 

 the Association for 1866 (p. 401), was in one respect very unsatisfactory ; it 

 could only speak of promise, not of performance. Indeed almost the sole 

 feat it could recount was the having drawn the money granted. The powers 

 of the Committee, however, being now ended, the only thing left was to show 

 that they had been properly applied, and this was best done by exhibiting a 

 selection from the large series of bones of the Didine Birds of the island of 

 Eodriguez, which had been collected by labourers sent expressly to that island 

 by Mr. Edward Newton in the autumn of 1866, as stated in the Eeport of 

 the Committee. It had been formerly shown by the late lamented Hugh 

 Edwin Strickland (The Dodo and its Kindred, p. 46) that this bird, PezopTiaps 

 solitaria (Gmel.), was Didine in its affinities, though genericaUy separable 

 from the true Dodo, Dklus ineptus, Linn. This conclusion, though originally 

 arrived at on very slight evidence, was now shown to be completely correct, 

 and the establishment of the genus Pezophaps is proved to have been fully 

 justified by the examination of the almost complete series of bones obtained 

 by Mr. Edward Newton. On some of the peculiarities presented by these 

 bones the author dwelt slightly, but in particular on an tmexpected confirma- 

 tion of the evidence of Leguat, by the discovery of an extraordinary bony 

 knob near the extremity of the wing. Leguat, whose aceountf of the liabits 

 of the Solitaire was the only one we possessed, mentioned that " I'os de 

 railcron grossit a rextremitc, et forme sous la plume une petite masse ronde 

 comme une baUo de mousquet." Now the existence of this " mas.se ronde " 

 was proved by the bony knobs attached to several metacarpal bones exhibited ; 

 and thus the veracity of Leguat was established on this point, as it had been 

 on so many others. In conclusion, the author stated that at present we know 

 little more of tlio Didine Bird of the Island of Eeuuion than that it was nearly 

 wliite. In the course of last year Mr. Tegetmeier had shown him an old 



* This was taken so young from the ovum that the reporter is not certain whether th6 

 long projecting rostrum is a feature or not, as at this period it is generally folded under, 

 t Voyage et Avantures de Fi-an9oi3 Leguat, &c. (Londres : 1708. 2 vols. 12nio). vol. i. p. 9a 



