AFFINITIES [Parr I. 
Owen points out as a distinction between the latter bird and the Vultures. This is the result of the 
prolongation of the beak, and the approach to parallelism in its opposite surfaces; and the only other 
birds which exhibit this conformation, are certain Gradlatores and Tenuirostres, neither of which groups 
have any reference to the present question. 
6. The apparent width of gape is one of the characters referred to by De Blainville in proof of 
the Vulturine relations of the Dodo. But the fact is, that the mctus of the Dodo is by no means so 
wide as in the Raptorial birds, and is proportionably no wider than in the Pigeons. On examining 
the original specimen, the angle of the mouth is seen to terminate three quarters of an inch in front of 
the eye. From this point a remarkable cutaneous ridge, which seems peculiar to this bird, extends 
backwards and downwards beneath the eye, and gives the appearance of a very capacious mouth. (See 
plate V). , 
7. The tarsi of the Dodo are only partially covered with transverse scuta, the upper portion being 
clothed with small scales. This structure is used by De Blainville as an argument for its affinity to 
the Vultures, in which the tarsi and greater part of the toes are wholly squamose. But although in 
the majority of Pigeons the tarsi are covered anteriorly with transverse scuta, yet it is interesting to 
find that in two genera, Starnenas and Goura, whose habits are almost wholly terrestrial, we find the 
tarsi clothed with small scales, not unlike those in the Dodo. 
8. The absence of metatarsal spines which has been adduced as an objection to the supposed 
Gallinaceous affinities of the Dodo, prevails equally throughout the Colwmbide. 
9. The short robust tarsi, and broad expansion of the lower surface of the toes in the Dodo (see 
Pl. VI) are much more conspicuous in the Pigeons, especially in the group Zreronine (including 
Carpophaga), than in the Vultures. I know no other group in which the toes are similarly expanded, 
except the Hornbills (Bucerotide), and these assuredly have no affinity to the Dodo. The design of 
this structure is probably to give the bird a firmer footing, and to compensate for the shoxtness, or 
insufficient lateral movement of the toes. 
10. A general character of perching birds consists in the hind toe being articulated so low down, 
that its inferior surface forms a continuous plane with the sole of the foot; whereas in those orders 
which are essentially ambulatory, such as the Rasores and Gradlatores, the hind toe is more or less 
raised above the level of the other toes. But in the Pigeons, whose habits are essentially arboreal, the 
former structure is constant, even in the strictly terrestrial genera, and in the case of the Dodo, 
although it must have been exclusively confined to the ground, Nature still adheres to the Columbine 
position of the hind toe. An analogous persistence of type is seen in the Ground Parrots and Ground 
Cuckoos, in which the reversed position of the outer toe, an essentially scansorial structure, is maintained 
in spite of the discordance of habits. 
11. On comparing the relative lengths of the anterior toes in the different genera of Pigeons, 
with reference to their peculiarities of habit, we find that in the exclusively arboreal genera (such as 
Treron, Carpophaga, Ptilonopus, &e.), the inner toe is shorter than the outer; in the more terrestrial 
genera (as Phaps, Geophaps, &c.), it is longer than the outer; while in those genera which combine 
both modes of life, (as Columba, Turtur, Geopelia, &c.), these digits are nearly equal. Conformably 
with this, we find that in the Dodo, the most terrestrial of all Pigeons, the inner toe is considerably 
longer than the outer. Now although the head of the Dodo agrees most nearly with that of the Zrerons, 
from which I infer that it fed, like those birds, on tropical fruits, yet as the Zrerons are exclusively 
arboreal birds, it is interesting to observe that the structure of its foot approaches rather to that of 
the Ground Pigeons. 
