Professor Newton on Léguât' s Giant Bird. 71 



rendered into English, in "The Ibis " for 1866 (p. 146), the 

 author, under the belief that the figure of the " Géant " or 

 "Giant Bird" given in Leguat's " Voyage " (French ed.,ii.p. 73 ; 

 English ed., p. 171) was original, ingeniously shewed that the 

 subject of the plate must have been a Balline bird, which he 

 named Gallinula (Leguatia) gigomtea. In 1873 I exhibited at 

 a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, as recorded 

 in its "Proceedings " for that year (p. 191), the print of a 

 copper plate by Galle, after a drawing by Collaert, which had 

 obviously been copied as regards this figure by Leguat's 

 draughtsman, since Collaert died more than one hundred 

 and twenty years before Leguat sailed from Europe. 

 Schlegel's argument founded on this figure accordingly fell to 

 the ground, and nothing therefore is left to tell us what the 

 bird was but Leguat's text. His description, if so it may be 

 called, making allowance for the circumstances, seems to me, 

 as it seemed to Strickland, ' evidently that of a Flamingo — the 

 only discrepancies worth noting being* the size, easily mis- 

 estimated, and the absence of a web between the toes. It 

 may be remarked too, in this connection, that bones of a 

 Phcenicopterus have been found in Mauritius ("Ibis," 1866, 

 p. 144 ; "Ann. Se. Nat." Sér. 5, xix. no. 3), though this was 

 not known until nearly ten years later, while among the 

 hundreds or even thousands of birds' bones recovered from 

 that island there is not one which can be assigned to a giant 

 Ralline. I bring this subject forward now, because I see that 

 in recent works Leguatia has been admitted as a genuine 

 genus, while the facts above stated have been wholly ignored, 

 As evidence of the view here taken, there will be seen on 

 the table a print of Collaert's drawing* engraved by Galle, as 

 well as a copy of each version (French and English) of 

 Leguat's "Voyage," showing the figures of the "Géant " or 

 " Giant Bird " therein given, together with Schlegel's 

 rendering of the same in his paper, while, hung on the 

 wall, are the enlarged drawings used by him when he read it 

 at Amsterdam in 1857, which came into my possession at 

 the sale of his library and effects. 



Alfred Newton. 



1 The Dodo and its Kindred, p. 60, note 1. 



