Ca ky OF THE DODO. 37 
that the Dodo is a Raptorial bird, allied to the Vultures, in proof of which he adduces : 
1, the eyes placed in the smooth area of the beak, as in Cathartes ; 2, the oval nostrils placed 
very forward on the beak, and without mcumbent scale; 3, the form, size, and colour of 
the beak, resembling those of Sarcorhamphus ; 4, the form of the cranium, its width between 
the orbits, its flattenmg on the sinciput, as in the last-named Vulture ; 5, the two caruncular 
folds at the base of the curved portion of the beak, somewhat as in Sarcorhamphus ; 6, the 
hood of skin like that of Cathartes ; 7, the almost naked neck, of a greenish colour; 8, the 
form, number, and arrangement of the toes, and the strength and curvature of the claws ; 
9, the squamose system of the tarsi and toes; 10, the crop at the base of the neck and 
the muscular stomach, which are common, as he says, to the two orders ; and 11, the absence 
of the metatarsal spine. 
Notwithstanding these apparent agreements with the Rapacious order, M. de Blainville 
admits that the legs of the Dodo are much shorter and stronger than in any known Vulture ; 
that the toes are not connected, as in the Vultures, by a membrane; and that the inability 
to fly appears even a greater anomaly in a rapacious, than in a gallinaceous bird. These 
difficulties, however, do not prevent him from giving his vote in favour of the Raptorial 
affinities of the Dodo. : 
The Baron de la Fresnaye, in an outline of his classification of the Birds of Prey, adopts 
M. de Blainville’s views, and makes the Didine the first, or lowest, sub-family of the 
Vulturide (Revue Zoologique, 1839, p. 193). In accordance with this idea, he conjectures 
that the Dodo imhabited the sea-coasts, and fed upon the remains of Crustacea, Mollusca, 
and other offal cast up by the waves. 
Mr. Gould, from a consideration of the several characters above enumerated, and 
especially the compression of the beak and nudity of the face, arrived at the same conclusion 
as M. de Blainville (Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. vol. iv. p. 34). 
Mr. J. E. Gray has expressed the opinion that the bird represented in the pictures of the 
Dodo was made up artificially by joming the head of a bird of prey approaching the Vultures, 
if not belonging to that family, to the legs of a Gallinaceous bird. But, as Mr. Broderip well 
remarks, “if this be granted, see what we have to deal with. We have then two species, 
which are either extinct, or have escaped the researches of all zoologists, to account for; one, 
a bird of prey, to judge from its bill, larger than the Condor; the other, a Gallinaceous bird, 
whose pillar-like legs must have supported an enormous body.” Mr. Gray’s opinion is based 
on the following grounds :— 
“1, The base of the bill is enveloped in a cere, as may be seen in the cast, where the folds of the 
cere ave distinctly exhibited, especially over the back of the nostrils. The cere is only found in the 
Raptorial birds. 
“2. The nostrils are placed exactly in front of the cere, as they are in the other Raptores ; they 
are oval and nearly erect, as they are in the ¢rwe Vudtures, and in that genus alone, and not longitu- 
dinal as they are in the Cathartes, all the Gallinaceous birds, Grallatores, and Natatores; and they are 
naked, and eorered with an arched scale, as is the case in all the Gallinacee. 
