OSTEOLOGY OF THE DODO. 75 



the keel, from the outer and posterior angle of the sternum, distant from the costal 

 margin. Tn old Plovers the entolateral process joins the contiguous angle of the sternal 

 body, and converts the inner notch into a' foramen. 



In the breast-bone of the Dodo we plainly discern the Columbine modification of the 

 Gallinaceous type, simplified in the minor development of those parts relating adaptively 

 to the power of fiight, and expanded and excavated for the support of the larger gizzard 

 with its heavier grindstones'. 



In comparing the pelvis of Didunculus and Goura (PI. XXIV. fig. 5) with that of 

 Biclus (PI. XIX. fig. 1), the correspondences are : — in the general shape, proportions and 

 disposition of the ilia ; in the articulation therewith of the last pair- of moveable ribs, and 

 of the short straight confluent pleurapophyses of the three succeeding sacral vertebrae ; 

 then follow, as in Dicliis, three vertebrae without pleurapophyses, these reappearing in 

 the next two with their extremities converging to abut against a prominence of the inner 

 surface of the ilium in the same relative position. The difference here is in the two 

 equal and more slender rib-buttresses, in place of the single stronger one, which is the 

 more common structure in Diilus ; but in Goura I have noted an instance in which it 

 agreed with the Didunculus on the left side, and with Didus on the right, in the last- 

 specified character. In the Crown-pigeons, also, there is an indication of the transverse 

 ridge marking oiF the under part of the centrum of the first sacral from the rest, and those 

 that follow are less expanded than in the Dodlets ; moreover in Bidimculus they show 

 a median canal instead of a ridge, while the ridge is feebly indicated here and there and 

 there is no canal in Goura. In neither Didunculus nor Goura do the sacral centrums 

 behind the last rib-abutments diminish in breadth so suddenly as in Didus : in both the 

 winged Pigeons the hinder part of the pelvic cavity is relatively deeper and narrower 

 than in Didus ; in both, also, the upper and anterior concave tracks of the ilia are deeper; 

 and in Didunculus the mesial borders do not attain the neural crest, but leave a pair of 

 open longitudinal canals at that part of the pelvis ; in Goura those margins reach the 

 neural crest, but do not overtop it at any part. In Goura the acetabula are more in 

 advance of a median position than in Didunculus, Columha magnifica, or Didus. Although 

 the ischiadic foramina are completed by terminal confluence of the ilium and ischium in 



' The habit of the Dodo to avail itself of extraneous crushers to a gallinaceous or struthious degree, is attested 

 by the following fruit of the extensive research of the learned and conscientious author of the Article Dodo, in 

 the ' Penny Cyclopedia ; ' — 



" About 1638, as I walked London streets, I saw the picture of a strange fowle hong out upon a cloth ; and 

 myselfe with one or two more then in company went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a great 

 fowle, somewhat bigger than the largest Turkey-cock, and so le^ed and footed, but stouter and thicker and of 

 a more erect shape, coloured before like the breast of a young cock feasan, and on the back of a dunn or deere 

 coulour. The keeper called it a Dodo, and in the end of a chymuey in the chamber there lay a heap of large 

 pebble-stones, whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as big as nutmegs, and the keeper told us shee eats 

 them (conducing to digestion)." Sir Thos. Brown's Works (Wilkin's Edition, 4 vols. : London, 183(i), vol. i. 

 p. 369; vol. ii. p. 173. 



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