Cu. 1] OF THE DODO. 101 
The variation in shape of the small posterior or accessory metatarsus, which supports 
the hind toe, has hitherto been almost overlooked as a guide to classification, and farther 
observations are necessary to point out its real value; in the Colwmécde, the form of this bone 
is characteristic, and readily distinguishable from that of the corresponding element in the 
Rasores; although in some other respects, these orders closely approximate. . 
The number and relative length of the toes, the form and proportion of the constituent 
phalanges, and especially of the ungual segment, are also important elements for indicating 
the habits of birds, both as to progression and prehension. Although the Colwmbide are 
typically a perching group, still some of its members, as the Ground Pigeons (Gowrine), seek 
their food chiefly, if not exclusively, on the ground, and require a corresponding adaptation in 
the form of the foot ; which is not effected by a change in the shape of the metatarsi, or in 
the relative level of their trochlear extremities, in other words, by the assumption of the 
strictly ambulatory form of the foot, as in the Rasores and Galle; but chiefly by the 
abbreviation of the phalanges of the outer toe, which thus becomes shorter than the inner. 
The same change takes place in the Dodo, which is a terrestrial representative of the 
Treronine group, just as the Geophaps is a less terrestrial member of the ordinary Columbine 
subtype. 
The decayed and mutilated integuments were carefully removed from the remaining left 
foot of Tradescant’s specimen by Dr. Kidd, the learned Professor of Anatomy and Medicine 
in the University of Oxford; and we are thus enabled to test the validity of the deduction 
arrived at from the study of the head, and vice versa. 
The opinion advanced by Professor Owen, after an examination of this interesting osseous 
relic, has been already mentioned ; it is evidently based merely on the absolute size of the 
metatarsus, and the figures which he has furnished of its supposed affine, will serve for its 
refutation, while those given in Plate XI., will enable the reader to judge of the accuracy of 
Mr. Strickland’s observations. 
By authors, the principal metatarsus of birds is very generally termed the ¢arso-metatarsus, 
but improperly, as we have no evidence of the development at any period of the tarsal 
segment of the limb, or of its fusion with the three elements which coalesce to constitute the 
metatarsal bone; what has been regarded by some as the tarsal element, is simply the 
disjunct proximal epiphysis of the metatarsus. 
The metatarsus of the Dodo (Plate XI, Fig. 1-6), which is five inches two lines and a half 
long, equals or exceeds im size that of the largest Raptorial bird, and is much greater than that 
of any of the known fasores; in general form and proportions, it resembles most closely the 
corresponding bone in Pigeons, especially in the shorter-limbed arboreal species, as the Zreron. 
The leading resemblances have already been stated,’ and an examination of the figures 
(Plate XI.) will enable the general reader to verify them. 
The great strength of this bone in Pigeons is remarkable, and the extended periphery 
is required to give an increase of surface, for the attachment of the powerful inter-osseous 
1 Part I. Chap. 1. p. 44. 
