82 PEOFESSOR OWEN ON THE 



as I seemed to do on this point iii the an-ay of evidence before the "Parliamentary 

 Committee on the British Museum," I was glad to find my views on type-forms adopted 

 and paraphrased by the President in his Addi-ess to the British Association at the 

 meeting at Nottingham', in the present year. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 



PLATE XV. 



Fio-. 1. Side view of the skeleton of the Dodo [Bidus ineptus, L.), with an outline of 

 the bird as represented in the oil-painting presented to the British Museum 

 by Edwards, Naturalist and Librarian of the Royal Society, to whom it had 

 been given by Sir- Hans Sloane, P.R.S., with the statement that the painting 

 had been made, of the natural size, from a living specimen of the Dodo, in 

 Holland. The bones represented in profile, of the natural size^, testify to the 

 accuracy of the form and proportions of the Dodo given in the painting. 



Fig. 2. An outline of the Samoan Dove or Dodlet [Didunculus strigirostris, Peale; 

 Gnathodon strigirostris, Jardine^j of the natural size, from a specimen living 

 in 1865 in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, with a view of 

 the skeleton corresponding with that of the Dodo. 



PLATE XVI. 



Fig. 1. Front ^dew of the fourth (or first of the three confluent) dorsal vertebree (centrum 



and neural arch). 

 Fig. 2. Vertebral rib, or pleurapophysis, of the same vertebra, front view. 

 Fig. 3. Sternal rib, or haemapophysis, of the same vertebra : a, outer side ; h, upper or 



pleural end ; f, lower or sternal end ; d, front margin ; e, inner surface. 

 Fig. 4. Front view of sternum, or connate mass of haemal spines, mcluding that of the 



same (fourth dorsal) vertebra. 

 Fig. 5. Inner surface of an anterior pleurapophysis, with coalesced appendage, a. 

 Fig. G. Oblique view of ditto, ditto. 



' " The doctrine of typical nuclei seems only a mode of evading the difficulty. Experience does not give lis 

 the types of theory ; and, after all, what are these types ? It must be admitted there are none in reality. 

 How are we led to the theory of them ? Simply hy a process of abstraction from classified existences. Having 

 grouped from natural simOitudes certain natural forms into a class, we select attributes common to each 

 member of the class, and call the assemblage of such attributes a type of the class. This process gives us an 

 abstract idea ; and we then transfer this idea to the Creator, and make Him start with that which our own 

 imperfect generalization has derived." (Address, &c., by William R. Grove, Esq., Q.C., M.A. 8vo, London, 

 186(5: p. 31.) 



' The scapular arch is rotated in advance of the ribs to show the character of the anterior dorsal vertebrae. 



■■' See also Gould, ' Birds of Australia,' part 22 (March, 1846). 



