ORDER GRALL.i:. 447 



space which separates the islands which have been assigned 

 as their habitation. This reflection, too, invalidates the conjec- 

 ture of Grant, that the dodo may yet be found on the coasts 

 of some uninhabited islands. The only mode remaining of 

 enabling us to form any positive judgment on the bird in 

 question, would be to examine and compare the earliest rela- 

 tions of the penguins and manchots, and to see what 

 analogies may exist between them and the accounts of the 

 dodo.* 



We have thus put our readers in possession of every thing 



* The foot of the dodo is most like the foot of the cassowary of any 

 known bird, for strength, and in the form of its scales ; but it has four toes, 

 while the cassowary has only three, and its tarsus is only about one-third 

 the length of that of the cassowary, while its toes are of nearly equal size. 

 The bill is truly the bill of a gallinaceous bird, and has not the slightest 

 analogy in formation to that of the albatross; it is only covered with a very 

 thin horny coat, except at the tip, while the bill of the albatross is very 

 strong, and separated by well marked sutures. The original painting, 

 brought by Edwards, is in the British Museum; it is copied Edw. t. 204; 

 Bont. Ind. title page, and p. 70; Shaiv. Guise, t. 123; Tonlist. Av. t 56, 

 f. 5; WUl. t. 27; Okar Mus. xxiii. t. 13. f. 5; Lath. Hist. t. 135, Zool. 

 Jour. iij. n. 3. 



The foot in the British Museum is the one described by Grey, in his 

 Rarities, p, 66. The bill and foot in the Ashmolean Museum must doubt- 

 less have belonged to the specimen of the bird that was in Tradiscaut's 

 collection, (under the name of Dodar, Mus. Trad. p. 4.) and afterwards at 

 Oxford, as stated by Hyde, which, according to the order of the visitors, 

 was destroyed in Jan. 1 755. 



The foot is very like the specimen in the British Musuem ; but it is one 

 inch shorter, and comparatively smaller in all its other proportions, and 

 therefore must have belonged to a second specimen of the bird. The 

 foot evidently belongs to a gallinaceous bird, and is peculiar for its exceed- 

 ing shortness and strength, and has not the slightest resemblance to that 

 of any water bird. For a good account of the history of this bird, consult 

 Mr. Duncan's interesting paper in the Zoo). Journal, iij. t. 



There are two other rough but original figures; first, Clttsius Exotica, 

 V. 90, cop. Zool. Jour. iij. n. 1, and Herbert Tran. 256, f. 5, cop. Zool. c. 

 iij. n. 2. 



