the Dodo ( Didus ineptus.) 495 
3d. It is evident, even by the admission of M. de Blain- 
ville, that they had gizzards, which is not the case with any 
rapacious bird. 
4th. That though M. de Blainville's objections to classing 
them among the true Gallinaceous birds may perhaps be suffi- 
cient, yet that they do not hold in classing them with the 
Columbidæ. 
Taking the historical evidences in connection with those 
drawn from the form of corresponding parts, I think it very 
clear that the Dodo was a gigantic pigeon, and that as its gen- 
eral shape, feathering, &c. resemble more strongly the young, 
than the adult pigeon, we may perhaps be allowed to sur- 
mise that it properly belongs to an earlier epoch than the 
present, and has become extinct because its time was run.’ 
the Oxford Association, in which he expresses his opinion that the Dodo belonged 
to the Pigeons, and that it was closely allied to the Fruit Pigeons. 
