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fully aware it has been the practice of late to consider the animals 

 obtained from locahties remote from each other specifically distinct ; 

 they may be so ; but imless we have some certain means of distin- 

 guishing them, I do not think we ought to regard them as such. 



I now venture to introduce to your notice what I believe to be the 

 tibia of the Dodo {Didus ineptus) : its agreement with the foot in 

 the British Museum struck me as being exceedingly remarkable and 

 conclusive : its size and proportions, as compared with the metatarsal 

 in question, are exactly what I should have expected upon the sup- 

 position of their belonging to the same species : they fit each other 

 so perfectly, that one might think they belonged to the same indi- 

 vidual. With this evidence before me, I cannot for one moment 

 hesitate in considering the Dodo of the Mauritius to be identical with 

 the Dodo of Rodriguez. There are also in this collection two other 

 bones, which, from their size and form, I beheve to belong to this 

 species: the most remarkable is the head of the humerus, which would 

 indicate by its magnitude and broad attachments that it belonged to 

 a bird of large bulk, while the sudden reduction in the size of its shaft 

 clearly indicates a bird with small wings. The great thickness and 

 consequent weight is suflScient to cause us to suppose that this bird 

 had not the power of flight. 



The next bone to which I will call your attention is a right meta- 

 tarsal, which appears to me to have belonged to a bird known to 

 Leguat as the Solitaire, and described by him during his residence 

 on the island of Rodriguez. I beg to read Leguat's description, in 

 order to point out to you its near agreement in point of size and form 

 with the Turkey, with which bird Leguat compared the bird he called 

 the Solitaire : — 



" Of all the birds in the island, the most remarkable is that which 

 goes by the name of the Solitary, because it is very seldom seen in 

 company, though there are abundance of them. The feathers of the 

 male are of a brovra-grey colour : the feet and beak are like a Tur- 

 key's, but a little more crooked. They have scarce any tail, but 

 their hind part covered with feathers is roundish, like the crupper of 

 a Horse ; they are taller than Turkeys. Their neck is straight, and 

 a httle longer in proportion than a Turkey's when it lifts up its head. 

 Its eye is Ijlack and hvely, and its head without comb or cop. They 

 never fly, their wings are too little to support the weight of their 

 bodies ; they serve only to beat themselves, and flutter when they 

 call one another. They will whirl about for twenty or thirty times 

 together on the same side, during the space of four or five minutes. 

 The motion of their wings makes then a noise very like that of a 

 rattle, and one may hear it two hundred paces ofl". The bone of 

 their wing grows greater towards the extremity, and forms a httle 

 round mass imder the feathers, as big as a musket-ball. That and 

 its beak are the chief defence of this bird. 'Tis very hard to catch 

 it in the woods, but easie in open places, because we nm faster than 

 they, and sometimes we approach them without much trouble. From 

 March to September they are extremely fat, and taste admirably well. 



