AVES. 
105 
are glad to take the present opportunity of noticing the third 
portion (which would otherwise have to stand over until next 
year) , so as to give an idea of the author^s views, which may be 
compared with those of other writers on the same important 
subject during the last twelve months. 
After referring to the determination by Prof. Reinhardt, in 
1843, of the Columbine affinities of the Dodo, and stating the 
circumstances under which a fine senes of its hones, discovered 
in 1865 by Mr. G. Clark (Zool. Record, ii. p. 124, and supr'a 
p. 104), came into the possession of the British Museum, Prof. 
Owen proceeds to describe these in detail. As it would he ob- 
viously impossible to insert here an abstract of this part of the 
work, it must suffice to say that all the available portions of the 
skeleton, vertebrae, ribs, pelvis (imperfect), sternum (imperfect), 
scapular arch (furcula imperfect) , bones of the wing (wanting 
the carpal portion), and of the legs and skull, are minutely de- 
scribed in the precise method for which the author is so justly 
celebrated. The small size of the brain-cavity, and especially 
of that which held the cerebrum, is particularly dwelt upon ; 
and it is suggested, on LamarclCs principle, that the wings of 
this bird, exempt from enemies and with abundance of food, 
might in a long course of generations suffer atrophy, while the 
hind limbs through increased exercise might endure hypertrophy. 
In like manner, without any stimulus to the growth of cerebrum 
proportionate to the gradually accruing increase of body, the 
species miglit go on feeding and breeding in a lazy stupid 
fashion. The cerebellum, which has to do with muscular action^ 
shows, as might be expected, some increased development. 
A careful comparison of the skeleton of Didus with that of 
other genera, Didunculus, Goura, the Struthiones, VidturidcHy and 
many Gy'alla, which occupies many pages, tends to render more 
instructive and convincing, in Prof. OiveiPs opinion, the affinities 
of the first to the Columboi. The extinction of Vidus is attri- 
buted to what he, in opposition to Strickland and Melville, con- 
siders its degenerate or imperfect structure. Such, then, is a 
necessarily brief, and, we fear, a very imperfect abstract of this re- 
markable work, especially remarkable because it furnishes us, in a 
more complete form than has hitherto aj)peared, with some of the 
author-^s views on the general question of the origin of species. 
Of the plates it contains, one gives copies of three pictures of 
Z>. ineptus by Roelandt Savory, which have before been engraved, 
A second contains representations of Vidunculus ; and the re- 
mainder illustrate the osteology of the former. One of these 
shows a tracing in outline of the full-sized picture of the Dodo 
in the British Museum as large as the original, and the skeleton 
restored contained in it. [Cf. P. Z. S. 1866, pp. 4, 5.) 
Gervais, P., et Coquerel^ Ch. Sur le Dronte^ h propos d^os 
