THE 
NATURAL AES HOR y 
OF THE 
DODO, SOLITAIRE, kc. 
| ea id dL 
CHAPTER I. 
Osteology of the Dodo. 
(Puarss VITI., IX., X., XI., and XII.) 
The skull of the Dodo is larger than that of any existing raptorial bird, and greater 
though shorter than that of the Albatross; its ratio to that of the Goura and Treron will be 
seen by a glance at Plate X. 
The skull is remarkable not only for its great absolute and relative size, but also, for the 
abbreviation of the cranium, whose length is to that of the upper mandible as one to two, 
and for the sudden rise of the frontal region above the compressed upper mandible ; the 
skull hence assumes, as it were, the form of a mallet, the head of which corresponds to the 
cranium, while the core, or bony termination of the mandibles, acts as a counterpoise. 
The shortening of the cranium is due to the small relative size of the eyes, and the 
consequent retrogression of the ethmoidal fossz, and atrophy of the proper interorbital septum. 
The elevation of the frontal region above the level of the upper mandible, is produced 
by a sudden expansion of the pneumatic diploé, tilting up the extremity of the mesial 
process of the premaxillary, and the body of the nasal on each side, at an angle of 45°; 
while the abbreviated frontal is raised into a broadly rounded interorbital eminence. 
There is a sumilar development of the diploé, though in a less degree, in the Goura. The 
rise of the frontal region is in some Pigeons more abrupt than in the Dodo, but is owing to a 
different cause ; namely, the great size of the orbit, and the relative slenderness of the bill. 
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