Slater : Rodrigues, and its Fauna. 



27 



birds and lizards; (2) a starling, Necropsar rodericanum, (nearly 

 allied to an extinct Bourbon bird), of wbich I was fortunate enongii to 

 be the first discoverer ; (3) aiiotlier and a larger parrot, Necropsiilacus 

 rodericanus ; (4) a pigeon, Turtiir jnduratus, which also inhabits — or 

 inhabited — Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon, and which is almost 

 or quite extinct in the two latter; (5) a very remarkable rail, Aplwn- 

 apteryx lequati^ flightless, and nearly allied to an extinct Mauritius 

 form ; and lastly (0) a peculiar heron, Nydicorax, megacephalm, which, 

 like the owl, had unusually small wings, though it probably had the 

 power of flight when it chose to exert it. Its head and legs, however, 

 were very large and strong. It is a remarkable circumstance to find 

 birds of the pigeon, owl, rail, and heron, almost or quite without the 

 power of flight. It poin;s to the island having been much as it is at 

 present for many centuries. Food was so abundant and easily obtained 

 that two out of the four birds lost their flight altogether, from not 

 having need for it, and the other two in a great measure. Of course 

 when men, cats, and hogs did make their appearance, it made it all the 

 worse for the poor birds, who, in a couple of hundred years, succumbed 

 to their adversaries, and were numbered with the great auk and the 

 Philip Island parrot. 



So much for the birds. In reptiles, we have existing one or two 

 small lizards, and remains of a large one occurred in the bone-caves. 

 Leguat described this animal as being of a " villanous appearance," as 

 long and thick as a man's arm, and — a truly French remark — not bad 

 to eat. Remains of large extinct land tortoises are very abundant in 

 Rodrigues, related to a less abundant Mauritius species, and, also, 

 remarkably enough, to the huge ones which are found in the Galapagos 

 Islands off South America, as Dr. Glinther tells us. They were 

 plentiful in Leguat's time, who used to see flocks of two or three 

 thousand together. Now, alas, they have followed the solitaire — their 

 ancient companion — to the happy hunting grounds. Their shell, or 

 carapace, was, in adult males, some four feet from back to front, but 

 I found fragments of some that must have been still larger than this. 



There is, as above-mentioned to you, an orange-headed finch, Foudia^ 

 in Rodrigues ; there is a scarlet-headed one in Mauritius ; a more 

 scarlet one still in Madagascar, and another in the Seychelles, all very 

 nearly related. You have the starling, ISecropmr^ in Rodrigues, and 

 the Fregilux>us in Bourbon ; the Aphanapteryx leguati in Rodrigues, 

 and A. hroechii in Mauritius ; the solitaire in Rodrigues, the dodo in 

 Mauritius, and their hitherto undiscovered kinsman in Bourbon ; the 

 tortoise in Rodrigues, and his cousin in Mauritius. Here we see a 



