354 MESSES. A. AND E. NEWTON ON THE OSTEOLOGY OE THE SOLITAIEE. 
has been already long since suggested* that Cats, turned out hy the Dutch settlers may 
have destroyed the species “ by devouring the young ones as soon as they were hatched.” 
That this may have been the case is quite possible ; but it seems quite as, or even more, 
likely that a feller enemy than the Cat may have been introduced. "We mean the Hog, 
which we cannot but believe was the principal agent in destroying the Dodo in Mauri- 
tius f, though, so far as we are aware, the efficacy of this agent of destruction has not 
been sufficiently appreciated by former writers. It has been always so universal a 
practice to liberate Pigs in countries newly discovered by Europeans that we cannot 
suppose any exception to have been made in the case of Rodriguez, and at almost every 
place where these omnivorous animals have been set free we know them to have speedily 
increased and multiplied, replenished the land, and in most instances to have subdued it. 
In every way save one, perhaps, the account given by Leguat of the Solitaire of 
Rodriguez seems to be fully borne out by a study of its osteology, so far as that can 
throw any light on the subject. The rugose surface at the junction of the nasal bones 
with the nasal process of the premaxillary indicates the position of the caruncular ridge 
which he likens to a “ widow’s peak,” and in his figure represents at this place. The 
curved contour-lines of the upper and posterior part of the pelvis is quite in accordance 
with his statement that the “ hind-part ” of this bird was “ roundish, like the crupper of 
a horse.” We can well imagine that it was a somewhat less heavy bird than the Dodo J, 
and, judging from its longer legs, that it was capable of attaining considerable speed. 
The remarkable and unexpected confirmation of his description of the extraordinary 
knob on the wing has been already noticed — a fact which alone would place him high 
in the ranks of truthful observers. The appearance presented by this knob is so exactly 
that of diseased bone that one is led to believe that it had its origin in injuries received 
by the birds in such combats as are mentioned by Leguat, and was aggravated by a 
continuance of fighting-propensities transmitted from generation to generation. Other 
Pigeons, despite their proverbially peaceful reputation, are as much given to fighting as 
* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, pp. 31, 32. 
f In ‘ A Yoyage to Arabia Foelix through, the Eastern Ocean and the Streights of the Red-Sea, being the Eirst 
made by the French in the Years 1708, 1709, and 1710. Translated from the French ’ (London: Printed for 
E. Symon, 1732, small 8vo, pp. xvi. and 372), the editor, whose name (as appears for the anonymous translator’s 
preface, p. vii) was La Roque, says that the expedition touched at Mauritius in Sept. 1708, when they found 
(p. 147) that “ on the other side of the Isle beyond the Mountains, there were Droves of wild Boars ; that, not 
long before, a general Hunting had been order’d to root them out; and that, the Inhabitants having assembl’d 
for that purpose, they slew above fifteen hundred of them in one Day.” It is plain that inactive birds could 
not long he the inhabitants of an island swarming with feral swine. It is perhaps possible to imagine a vene- 
rable Dodo capable of assuming sufficient dignity to disconcert an impetuous Hog, but the awe of the latter once 
dispelled by any mark of resentment the result would he the same as when the Roman Senator provoked the 
fury of the Gaulish soldier ; while the more helpless part of the community would rapidly fall victims, young 
birds and eggs being inevitably traced to destruction by the unerring power of scent possessed hy the riotous 
new-comers. (Cf. Leguat, 1st ed. ii, pp. 70, 71, Engl. transL p. 170.) 
+ Herbert (cf. Strickland, ‘The Dodo, &c.’, pp. 19, 20) puts the weight of the Dodo at fifty pounds; Leguat 
(ut supr. cit ) that of the Solitaire at forty-five. 
