[ 281 ] 



IX. On additional Bones of the Bodo and other Extinct Birds of Mauritius obtained 

 by Mr. Theodore Sauzier. B^J Sir Edward Newton, K.C.M.G., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., 

 and Hans Gadow, Ph.B., M.A., F.B.S., F.Z.S. 



Received October 31st, 1892, read November 1st, 1892. 



[Plates XXXIII.-XXXVII.] 



IN 1889 the Government of Mauritius appointed a Commission to enquire into the 

 " Souvenirs Historiques " of that island ; and in furtherance of their object, at the 

 instance and under the able direction of their President, Mr. Theodore Sauzier, they 

 continued the exploration of the Mare aux Songes — the marsh in which the late 

 Mr. George Clark, upwards of five-and-twenty years ago, made the discovery of a vast 

 deposit of bones of the Dodo ^ and other animals, mostly now extinct, and the only 

 locality in Mauritius where remains of the Dodo have been found in any quantity ^. 



This exploration has been very successful, for not only have many Dodos' bones, 

 some of them new and others represented only by imperfect specimens, been recovered, 

 but also a considerable number of the bones of other birds, materially adding to our 

 knowledge of those which had been but partially described, and proving the former 

 existence in Mauritius of species either vaguely indicated by old voyagers or wholly 

 unsuspected to have been members of its fauna. Besides these there have been found 

 many remains of the large extinct Lizard, Bidosaurus mauritianus ^, and several 

 carapaces, more or less entire, though none absolutely perfect, belonging to one or 

 other of the extirpated Tortoises. 



Nearly the whole of these specimens have been sent by Mr. Sauzier, on behalf of 

 the Commission over which he presided, to the Museum at Cambridge, with a view to 

 their determination and to the description of such as are new, and this task has been 

 undertaken by the present writers. 



Before proceeding to its execution, it may be as well to recall the fact that up to the 

 present time, beside bones of Bidus ineptus, those of the following birds have been 

 obtained from this marsh and described as under : — 



Lophopsittacus mauritianus (Owen). Lower Jaw. E. Owen, Ibis, 1866, pp. 168 



et seqq. 

 Tibia. A. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 ser. 5, vi. pp. 91 et seqq. (1866). 



' Ibis, 1866, pp. 141 et seqq. ^ Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1890, pp. 402 et seqq. 



' Giinther, Journal of the Linnean Sooietj', Zoology, xiii. pp. 322 et seqq. 



VOL. XIII. — PART vn. No. 1. — August, 1893. 2 t 



