175 



DIDUS SOLITARIUS (SELYS). 

 REUNION DODO. 



(Plates 25, 25a, 25b.) 



Great Fowl Tatton, Voy. Castleton, Purchas his Pilgrimes, ed. (1625) I p. 331 (Bourbon 

 or Reunion). 



Dod-eersen Bontekoe, Journ. ofte gedenck. beschr. van de Ost. Ind. Reyse Haarlem (1646) p. 6. 

 Oiseau Solitaire Carr6, Voy. Ind. Or. I p. 12 (1699). 

 Solitaire Voy. fait par Le Sieur D. B. (1674) p. 170. 

 Apterornis solitarius de Selys, Rev. Zool (1848) p. 293. 



Didus apterornis Schlegel, Ook een Wordje over den Dodo p. 15 f. 2 (1854). 

 Pezophaps borbonica Bp., Consp. Av. II p. 2 (1854). 

 Ornithaptera borbonica Bp., Consp. Av. II. p. 2 (1854). 



Didine Bird of the Island of Bourbon (Reunion) A. Newt. Tr. Zool. Soc. VI pp. 373-376, 

 pi. 62 (1867). 



Apterornis solitaria Milne-Edw., Ibis (1869) p. 272. 



? Didus borbonica Schleg., Mus. P.B. Struthiones p. 3 (1873). 



Solitaire of Reunion A. Newton, Enc. Brit. II p. 732 (1875). 



HE Didine bird of Reunion was first mentioned by Mr. Tatton, the Chief 



J. Officer of Captain Castleton, in his account of their voyage given in 

 "Purchas his Pilgrimes." His account is as follows: — 

 " There is store of land fowle both small and great, plenty of Doves, great 

 Parrats, and such like ; and a great fowle of the bignesse of a Turkie, very 

 fat, and so short winged, that they cannot fly, being white, and in a manner 

 tame : and so be all other fowles, as having not been troubled nor feared with 

 shot. Our men did beat them down with sticks and stones. Ten men may 

 take fowle enough to serve fortie men a day." 



We then find frequent mention of this bird by Bontekoe in 5 separate 

 treatises or editions, from 1646 to 1650, and by Carre in 1699. But the first 

 more detailed description is given by the Sieur D. B. (Dubois) in 1674, which 

 is as follows : — 



"Solitaires. These birds are thus named because they always go alone. 

 They are as big as a big goose and have white plumage, black at the extremity 

 of the wings and of the tail. At the tail there are some feathers resembling 

 those of the Ostrich. They have the neck long and the beak formed like that 

 of the Woodcocks (he refers to the woodrails, Erythromachus — W.R.), but 

 larger, and the legs and feet like those of Turkey-chicks. This bird betakes 

 itself to running, only flying but very little. It is the best game on the Island." 



