358 MESSES. A. AND E. NEWTON ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE SOLITAIEE. 
belief that there was once a time when Rodriguez, Mauritius, Bourbon, Madagascar, and 
probably the . Seychelles were connected by dry land, and that that time was suffi- 
ciently remote to permit of the descendants of the original inhabitants of this now sub- 
merged continent to become modified into the many different representative forms which 
are now known to the ornithologist. Whether this result can have been effected by 
the process of “ Natural Selection” must be regarded as an open question; but that the 
Solitaire of Rodriguez and the Dodo of Mauritius, however much they eventually came 
to differ, sprang from one and the same parent stock, seems to us a deduction from 
the facts so obvious, that we can conceive no one fully acquainted with them hesitating 
about its adoption any more than he can doubt the existence of the Power by whom 
they were thus formed. 
Postscript, August 1869. 
Since this paper was written a communication made some years ago to £ Notes and 
Queries’ (First Series, vol. vi. p. 83, 24 July, 1852) by Mr. Pinkerton has attracted our 
attention. That gentleman refers to the account of Rodriguez, given by M. Eugene de 
Froberville in the ‘Xles'de I’Afrique’ of M. d’Avezac (partiii. pp. 67-80, Paris: 1848), 
forming a volume of the series entitled £ L’Univers, on Histoire et Description de tous 
les peuples,’ &c., wherein the writer quotes freely from a manuscript written by the 
Abbe Pingre, who passed some months of the year 1761 in Rodriguez, which he visited 
for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, as already mentioned by Dr. Hamel'* 
and Strickland f. As this manuscript was in existence not long prior to 1848, there 
seemed a good chance of its being found, and accordingly we applied to our good friend 
Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards, requesting him to make some inquiries respecting 
it. With his wonted readiness he most kindly undertook the research at once, and after 
some little time we had the pleasure of hearing from him that the manuscript had been 
found in the library of Ste. Genevieve at Paris. Subsequently he was so obliging as to 
transcribe for us that part which relates to the zoology of the island, and from his copy 
the following is an extract ; — 
“ Relations du voyage de 1’abbe Pingre a Tile de Rodrigue. 
* * * * * 
“ Les Solitaires etaient communes a Rodrigue du temps de Frangois Leguat : Mr. de 
Puvigne J m’a assure que la race n’en etait pas encore cletruite, mais ils se sont retires 
dans les endroits de l’isle les plus inaccessibles.” 
This brief though interesting notice undoubtedly renders it probable that the Solitaire 
of Rodriguez existed as lately as 1761, but taken alone it is insufficient to afford founda- 
tion for the statement of M. de Froberville ( ut supr. cit. p. 71), that “ ces tristes restes 
d’une population dont Leguat admirait la beaute et les mceurs curieuses, etaient sans 
- z - «j)er Dodo, der Einsiedler’, &c. 8vo, St. Petersburg: 1848, pp. 16, 17. 
t ‘The Dodo’, &c. pp. 64, 65. ;± “ M. de Puvigne commandant de File.” 
