14 
ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 
[upper 
formerly contained in Tradescant's Museum at Lambeth, and also 
various models of head, skulls, and bones of the foot. An oil- 
painting of this remarkable bird is hung in the wall-case 108, 
which is said to have been made from a living bird, brought from the 
Mauritius. The selection of bones of the Dodo, shown in a small 
case on the right side of the skeleton, as well as the skeleton, 
were obtained from a turbary in the island mentioned. The two 
skeletons in the case on the right side of the Dodo represent a male 
and female of the Solitaire {Pezophaps soUtariiis) from Piodn'guez, a 
small island situated about three hundred miles to the east of Mauri- 
tius. Like the Dodo, the Solitaire was a flightless pigeon, but less 
bulky, and of a more slender build. Although the wings were too 
weak and quite useless for the purpose of flight, they were armed at 
the wrist joint with a large bony excrescence (at least in the male), 
and these birds appear to have used them in their combats very much 
in the same manner as our common pigeons. The skeletons were dis- 
covered by one of the naturalists accompanying the Transit of Venus 
Expedition in 1874, and presented by the Eoyal Society of London. 
The case on the left side of the Dodo contains the remains of a 
gigantic flightless Goose from New Zealand {Cnemiornis calcitrans). 
Like the pigeons of the Muscarenes, it became extinct within a 
very recent period. 
Cases 110, 111, 112. The Bustards and Coursers, quick 
running birds, inhabitants of the barren parts of Europe, Africa, 
Asia, and Australia, where they feed on grain, herbage, worms, and 
insects. Cases 113-134. The Wading Birds, generally provided 
with, long legs. Cases 113, 114. The Plovers, Turnstones, and 
Oyster-catchers ; the last are so named because they are said to open 
bivalve shells with their bills, to feed on the contents. Case 114. 
The Trumpeters of South America ; one of these is employed to guard 
poultry from the attacks of hawks. Cases 115-117. The Cranes found 
on the borders of rivers and marshes, feeding on insects and seeds ; 
the fine-crested Egrets, with their delicate white plumes ; the Bitterns 
and Night-Herons ; the wide-beaked Boatbill and Spoonbills ; the 
Demoiselles, so named from their graceful and elegant motions. 
Facing Wall Case 123, a small Case is placed, containing a group 
of Knots {Tringa canutus) with their young. This bird is a kind of 
Sandpiper, distributed in the winter season over the greater part of 
the Old World, and common during the autumn migration on the 
south coast of England. Its breeding-home has been discovered quite 
recently during the Arctic Exhibition, when the specimens here 
exhibited were procured (4th of June, 1876). Cases 124, 125. The 
Storks and Ibises ; the Ethiopian Ibis, the mummies of which were pre- 
served by the ancient Egyptians ; the Balceniceps of the Upper Nile, 
which is enabled by its powerful beak to feed on hard-scaled fishes 
and tortoises. Cases 127-129. The Godvvits, Sandpipers, and Pha- 
laropes ; the Avocets, with their very long legs, and upturned or 
recurved bills ; the long-legged Plover, which seems to walk on stilts. 
Case 130. The Snipes, which feed among marshes; the Painted 
