314 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



Division B. With caeca, no gall bladder, no oil gland. 



Genus Starnce.nas. 

 DiYision C. With oil gland, without -gall bladder and 

 caeca. 

 Genera Geopelia, Q^Jna. 

 Division D. Without oil gland (or rudimentary) and 

 caeca ; tarsi scutellate. 

 Genera Treron, Ptilopus, Erythrcenas. 

 Division E. With caeca, oil gland, and gall bladder ; 

 •tarsi reticulate. 

 Genus Goura. 



To these must in any case be added another family to 

 include the flightless dodo {Didus) and the eqiially flightless 

 solitaire (Pezophaps) ,^ the former from Mauritius, the latter 

 from Eodriguez. 



The dodo at the time of its description by Messrs. 

 SteicklAjSTD and Melville ^ was only very imperfectly 

 known. Subsequently Owen ' gave an account of and figured 

 the greater part of the skeleton. Later still Sir E. Newton 

 and Gadow'' supplemented this account by further details, 

 and published a figure of 'the first correctly restored and 

 properly mounted skeleton.' There are naturally many 

 other notices of this much- written- about bird. 



The skull has the median supra-occipital foramen of 

 some pigeons, but not the basipterygoid processes. The 

 nostrils are schizorhinal. The palatines have, contrary to 

 what is found in Didunculus, with which Sir E. Owen 

 specially compares Didus, an internal lamina. Neither do 

 the postfrontal process and zygoma meet and fuse, as they 

 do in Didunculus. The interorbital septum is thick and 

 complete. 



There are 15 cervical vertebrae, and the atlas is notched for 

 the odontoid process. The last cervical and first two dorsals 



' A. and E. Newton, ' On the Osteology of the Solitaire,' &c., Phil. Trans. 

 1869, p. 327 ; E. Newton and J. W. Olabk, ' On the Osteology of the Solitaire 

 (Pezophaps soUtarms),' ibid. vol. clxviii. 1879, p. 438. 



' The Dodo and its Kindred. London, 1848. 



' ' On the Osteology of the Dodo,' Tr. Zool. Sac. vi. p. 49. 



' ' On Additional Bones of the Dodo,' &o., ihid. xiii. p. 281. 



