352 MESSES. A. AND E. NEWTON ON THE OSTEOLOGY OE THE SOLITAIEE. 
les males par le sien. C’est une partieularite que 
nous avons tant de fois observee, que j’en parle avee 
certitude. 
Ces combats dureut quelquefois assez long-terns, 
parce que l’etranger ne fuit qu’en touruant, sans s’eloig- 
ner directement du uid ; cependant, les autres ne 
rabandonnent jamais qu’ils ne l’ayent chasse. Apres 
que ces oiseaux ont eleve leur petit & l’ont abandonne 
a lui-meme, ils ne se deparient pas comme font tous 
les autres, mais ils demeurent toujours unis & com- 
pagnons, quoi qu’ils aillent quelquefois se meler parmi 
d’autres de leur espece. Nous avons souvent remarque 
que quelques jours apres que le jeune etoit sorti du 
nid, une compagnie de treute ou quarante en ame- 
noieut un autre jeune, & que le nouveau deniche avec 
ses pere & mere, se joignant a la bande, s’en alloient 
dans un lieu ecarte. Comme nous les suivions souvent, 
nous voyions qu’ apres cela, les vieux fe \lege se] re- 
tiroient chacun de leur cote, ou seuls, ou couple a cou- 
ple, & laissoient les deux jeunes ensemble; & nous 
appellions cela un manage. 
II y a dans cette nouvelle circonstance, quelque chose 
qui semble un peu fabuleux: mais ce sont pourtant 
des veritez pures, & des choses que j’ai bien souvent 
remarquees avec soin, & avec plaisir. Je ni pouvois 
m’empecher non plus, d’abandonner mon esprit a di- 
verses reflexions. — vol. i. pp. 98-102. 
Male, and he drives them away. We have observ’d 
this several times, and I aflirm it to be true. 
The Combats between them on this occasion last 
sometimes pretty long, because the Stranger only turns 
about, and do’s not fly directly from the Nest: How- 
ever, the others do not forsake it, till they have quite 
driv’n it out of their Limits. After these Birds have 
rais’d their young One, and left it to its self, they are 
always together, which the other Birds are not, and 
tho’ they happen to mingle with other Birds of the 
same Species, these two Companions never disunite. 
We have often remark’d, that some days after the 
young one leaves the Nest, a Company of thirty or forty 
brings another young one to it ; and the new fledg’d 
Bird with its Eather and Mother joyning with the Band, 
march to some bye Place. We frequently follow’d 
them, and found that afterwards the old ones went each 
their way alone, or in Couples, and left the two young 
ones together, which we call’d a Marriage. 
This Particularity has something in it which looks 
a little Eabulous, nevertheless, what I say is sincere 
Truth, and what I have more than once observ’d with 
Care and Pleasure ; neither cou’d I forbear to enter- 
tain my Mind with several Beflections on this Occa- 
sion. — pp. 71-74. 
The only other original testimony, of which we know, with regard to the Solitaire 
(if we except the vague notice, already mentioned, of Sir Thomas Herbert) is that of 
D’Heguerty* in 1754, as quoted in 1849 by Strickland f, who states that D’Heguerty 
had been Governor of the Island of Bourbon (now Reunion) about the year 1734, and a 
few years afterwards thus expressed himself of the sister Island of Rodriguez : — 
“ On y trouve aussi des oiseaux de differentes especes, que l’on prend souvent a la 
course, et entre autres des Solitaires, qui n’ont presqu’ point de plumes aux ailes ; cet 
oiseau, plus gros qu’un Cygne, a la physionomie triste; apprivoise on le voit toujours a 
la meme ligne, tant qu’il a d’espace, et retrograder de meme sans s’en ecarter. Lorsqu’on 
en fait l’ouverture, on y trouve ordinairement des Bezoards, dont on fait cas, et qui sont 
utiles dans la medecine.” 
Such is the meagre information J we have respecting the history of this remarkable 
form, blotted out from existence within the last hundred and fifty years, by means at 
which we can only guess. It is now no longer a matter of doubt that many species of 
* “ Memoires de la Societe Eoyale des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Nancy, vol. i. p. 79.” We have not been 
able to consult this work. 
f Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. iii. pp. 138, 139. 
i Eor a further notice, which renders it probable that the species lingered so late as 1761, see Postscript. 
