62 CONCLUSION. [Parr I. 
especially direct the attention to the caves with which those volcanic islands abound. ‘The 
chief agents in the destruction of the brevipennate birds were probably the run-away 
negros, who for many years infested the primeval forests of those islands, and inhabited 
the caverns, where they would doubtless leave the scattered bones of the animals on which 
they fed. Here, then, may we more especially hope to find the osseous remains of these 
remarkable animals. 
Should any copies of this work find their way to Mauritius or Bourbon, they may 
perhaps incite the lovers of knowledge in those islands to investigate further the subject 
which has been diligently, but imperfectly, pursued in this volume. And I shall feel rewarded 
for the trouble it has cost, if my researches into the history and organization of these birds, 
aided by the anatomical investigations which Dr. Melville has introduced into the second 
part of the work, shall have rescued these anomalous creatures from the domain of Fiction, 
and established their true rank in the Scheme of Creation. 
END OF PART I. 
