40 AFFINITIES [Parr I. 
those islands, has reported that the bird feeds upon bulbous roots. Its first discoverer, 
Mr. Titian Peale, an American naturalist (whose account is, I believe, still unpublished), 
saw something in its form or habits that reminded him of the Dodo, and hence its generic 
name, Sir W. Jardine, who first described the bird, under the name of Gzathodon strigi- 
rostris, in the Annals of Natural History, vol. xvi. p. 175, referred it conjecturally to the 
Megapodide, though he recognised in it several dove-like characters. And Mr. Gould, who 
has given two figures of it in his Birds of Australia, Part 22, pronounces that the bird 
approaches nearest to the Pigeons. We shall soon see that the Didine and Columbine 
hypotheses, though apparently incongruous, resolve themselves (as often happens) into one 
Truth. 
Although certain genera of Columbide are thus seen to assume a form of beak resembling 
that of the Raptores, yet no two groups in the same class can be more opposed in habits and 
affinities than the “feroces Aquile ” and “imbelles Columb.” It is interesting, however, 
to observe that mechanical strength, whether for the devouring of animal or vegetable 
substances, is obtained in both cases by a similarity of structure. 
If now we regard the Dodo as an extreme modification, not of the Vultures, but of these 
Vulture-like frugivorous pigeons, we shall, I think, class it in a group whose characters are far 
more consistent with what we know of its structure and habits. There is no @ prior7 reason why 
a Pigeon should not be so modified, in conformity with external circumstances, as to be mca- 
pable of flight, just as we see a Grallatorial bird modified into an Ostrich, and a Diver into 
a Penguin. Now we are told that Mauritius, an island forty miles m length and about one 
hundred miles from the nearest land, was, when discovered, clothed with dense forests of palms 
and various other trees. A bird adapted to feed on the fruits produced by these forests 
would, in that equable climate, have no occasion to migrate to distant lands ; it would revel in 
the perpetual luxuriance of tropical vegetation, and would have but little need of locomotion. 
Why then should it have the means of flymg? Such a bird might wander from tree to tree, 
tearing with its powerful beak the fruits which strewed the ground, and digesting their stony 
kernels with its powerful gizzard, enjoying tranquillity and abundance, until the arrival of 
Man destroyed the balance of Animal Life, and put a term to its existence. Such, im my 
opinion, was the Dodo, a colossal, brevipennate, frugivorous Prezon.' 
The first idea of referring the Dodo to the neighbourhood of the Pigeons, originated 
with Professor J. 'T. Reinhardt of Copenhagen, the discoverer of the cranium in the Gottorf 
Museum. When I was at Copenhagen in 1845, Professor Reinhardt was then absent on a 
1 Mr. E. Blyth, in an excellent treatise on the Colwmbide (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xiv. p. 858, and Ann. Nat. 
Hist. vol. xix. p. 99), speaking of the Gourine or Ground Pigeons, says : ‘Some much resemble Partridges in their 
mode of life; * * * * other genera are completely sylvan in their abode, feeding on the ground, more especially 
on fallen fruits and berries. Such are the magnificent Gowras of the Moluccas and New Guinea, * * * * and 
the elegant hackled Ground Pigeons (Calenas), one of which abounds in the forests of the Malay Peninsula, and in 
the Nicobar, Andaman, and Cocos Isles.” 
