128 
Letters , Announcements , fyc. 
The specimen above mentioned, which 1 have placed in the 
Norwich Museum, is in immature plumage, resembling H. 
eleonorce at the same age, and H. subbuteo in the mature dress; 
a few grey feathers, however, are visible, indicating that the 
assumption of the adult plumage had just commenced. 
To the skin was attached a ticket, of which the following is a 
copy :— 
“Eats dragonflies, grasshoppers, &c. Elies like a Swallow 
in the evening. Tarsus yellow; iris brown. Elephant Marsh, 
1/63.” I am, &c., 
J. H. Gurney. 
/V/ 
Following quickly on the discovery of remains of the Rodri¬ 
guez Didine bird, mentioned in our last volume (p. 551), has 
come news of a still more interesting discovery in the neigh¬ 
bouring island of Mauritius. Mr. George Clark, a gentleman 
living at Maliebourg, near the site of the old Dutch town of 
Grand Port, has had the good fortune to find a large number of 
bones of the true Dodo ( Didus ineptus) in the mud of a small 
mere, called the “ Mare aux Songes,” which has been lately 
drained. These he has sent to England; and they include al¬ 
most every portion of the bird’s skeleton. The most perfect 
series has been transmitted to Professor Owen, by whom they 
will be described in the f Transactions of the Zoological Society.’ 
The next perfect set is, thanks to Mr. Clark, in our own pos¬ 
session, and the remainder, which also passed through our hands, 
are shortly to be disposed of by Mr. Stevens, the well-known 
natural-history agent. An examination of these bones most 
decidedly confirms Professor Reinhardt’s view of the Columbine 
affinities of the Dodo; but, for all that, it may well be that the 
Dididce formed an order of themselves. A more wonderful 
structure than the Dodo’s skeleton it is not easy for the orni¬ 
thologist to conceive! 
