66 PEOFESSOE OWEN OX THE 



the three long metatarsals, and the remnant of their contiguous coalesced walls reduced 

 to a thin lamella of bone. As the moiety of the bone figured is the posterior one (of 

 the left metatarsus), the usual oblique jjosition of the middle metatarsal (iii), with its 

 proximal end nearer the back part and its distal end nearer the fore part of the coalesced 

 series, produces a corresponding direction of the section, with naiTowmg and termination 

 of the exposed part of the medullary canal about one-third from the distal end of that 

 metatarsal. The medullary canal of the outer metatarsal (iv) is wider and descends 

 lower before the breaking up of the inner surface into decussating lamellee or filaments, 

 than that of the inner metatarsal (it) : the peripheral compact wall of the inner is twice 

 the thickness of that of the outer metatarsal. I may remark that the more posterior 

 position of the middle metatarsal at its proximal end, from which and the corresponding 

 part of' the common epiphysis the calcaneal process is developed, is related to the greater 

 share taken by the middle toe in the act of walking and scratching. I will only remark 

 that of the four metatarsals of as many Dodos in the present series, one exceeds by a 

 line the length of that figured in plate xi. op. (it., and one falls short thereof to the 

 same trifling amount. 



§ 9. Skull. (Plates XV. & XXIII. fig. 1.) 



Of the skull of the Dodo, the series of bones transmitted to me include the cranial 

 part with the detached upper mandibular bone (more or less mutilated) of two mature 

 birds, and the lower mandible of three individuals. In the latter the dentary elements 

 (PL XXIII. fig. 1,32), confluent at the " gonys," are distinct from the hinder halves 

 of the rami formed by the confluent, or perhaps connate, articular, surangular and an- 

 gular elements (ib. 3i) : if the " splenial " were ever distinct, it has coalesced with the 

 dentary, where its ujaper boundary is indicated by a linear groove or series of small 

 foramina. 



In size, shape, and all other characters of these important evidences of the specific 

 character of the remains from the Mahebourg morass^ they agree with those of Didus 

 ineptus detailed in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for January 11th, 1848 

 (partxvi. pp. 2-8), and in the work entitled " The Dodo and its Kindred," pp. 76-96. 



The occipital condyle (ib. i) presents the same hemispheroid or reniform shape, with 

 the median vertical notch or depression above. The upper margin of the foramen mag- 

 num is broad, as it were excised, with the sides slightly prominent. The superoccipital 

 foramen is present in both specimens, as in the one originally described (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. part xvi. p. 2). This foramen also exists in Owls and Parrots, but not in all Pigeons ; 

 the Didunculus (PI. XV. fig. 2) shows no trace of it ; I have also failed to find it in the 

 skull of a Crown-pigeon (Goura coronata). The superoccipital ridge is defined by the 

 subsidence of the surface beneath it being continued directly from the upper, almost 

 flat, smooth surface of the cranium : the middle part of the ridge is more produced than 



' " La Mare aux Songes." 



