1868.] 



Osteology of the Solitaire, 



429 



. This vast series of specimens shows that there was a very great amount 

 of individual variabihty in the bird, so much so as to render the task of 

 describing them minutely, and yet generally, a very difficult one. Yet, in 

 consequence of this w^ealth of m.aterial, the authors have greater confidence 

 in the opinions they declare. Professor Owen, having lately pubhshed a 

 very detailed account of the osteology of the Dodo the present paper 

 follows as closely as possible the mode of treatment he therein adopted, the 

 authors thinking that they are so consulting the convenience or those who 

 may wish to compare the structure of the two allied birds. Thanks to 

 him, also, they have been able themselves to examine the very specimens 

 which he described ; and they are further indebted to many others — Mr. 

 George Clark of Mauritius, Professors Reinhardt, Fritsch, and Alphonse 

 Milne-Edwards, Sir William Jardine, and Mr. Flower, for valuable assist- 

 ance in the shape of models or other additional material. To Mr. J. Yv". 

 Clark they also mention their obligations for reconstructing from speci- 

 mens in their possession the skeletons of the Dodo and of two Solitaires 

 now exhibited. 



The description of the latter follows in much detail, the amount of in- 

 dividual variability to which each bone was subject being specially dwelt 

 on, and the whole compared bone by bone with that of the Dodo and also 

 of Bidunculus. Pezojyhaps differs from Bidunculus quite as much as Didus 

 does, but it is nearly allied to the latter. Still there are important dif- 

 ferences. The neck was much longer than in Didus, and the vertebrae, on 

 the whole, larger. The ribs also possess perhaps somewhat thicker heads 

 and articular tubercles. The pelvis is much more rounded, and approaches 

 that of the normal Pigeons much more than that of Didus does ; but in its 

 posterior portion it differs very remarkably from that of any known bird ; 

 for the pubis in Didus has not yet been discovered. In the sternum 

 Pezophaps generally agrees with Didus, but has some distinctive features. 

 This bone shows articular surfaces for four sternal ribs only, instead of five, 

 which seems to be the normal number in Didus ; and the posterior extre- 

 mity, so far as can be judged from the imperfect condition of the specim.ens, 

 is very unlike what it is in that bird ; but the characters deducible from this 

 last portionin birds generally are shown to be very inconstant. The scapular 

 arch " differs from that of Didus, its constituent portions having been appa- 

 rently never ancbylosed as is the normal state there, and consequently resem- 

 bling in this respect those of the generality of birds. The angle made by the 

 junction of the coracoid and scapula cannot be accurately determined, but 

 would appear to have been not much less than what it is in Didus. The 

 scapula is of very peculiar form, unlike, so far as known to the authors, 

 that of any bird, being inclined somewhat forward, and only pointing back- 

 ward at its extremity, where it becomes spatulate in shape. The coracoid 

 exhibits, as usual in this very significant bone, some good diagnostic cha- 



* " Oil tho Osteology of the Dodo (Bichcs inq:)iiis, Linn.)," Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. 

 pp. 49-85. 



