144 Mr. G. Clarkes Account of his Discovery 
and radii were so scarce that I found but four in all, and only 
a single metacarpus. I met with one pair of tarsi belonging to 
a young bird. Their identity is unmistakeable, and their bulk 
less than one-fourth of that of the adult. 
By far the greatest portion of these bones might be divided into 
two dimensions perceptibly differing, though not very unequal 
in size, leading to the belief that the diversity in their respective 
sizes arose from the difference of sex. 
All the specimens appear to have belonged to adult birds ; 
and none bear any marks of having been cut or gnawed, or of 
the action of fire. This leads me to believe that all the Dodos 
of which the relics were found here were denizens either of 
this marsh or its immediate neighbourhood, that they all died a 
natural death, and that they were very numerous in Mauritius, 
or at least in this part of it. The astonishment of some very 
aged creoles, whose fathers remembered Labourdonnais, at seeing 
a quantity of bones of large birds taken from the mud in this 
marsh, was really ludicrous. “ How,” said they, “ could these 
bones have got there? Neither our fathers nor our grand¬ 
fathers ever knew of any such birds, or heard of such bones 
being found.” Some of the bones bear evidence of having been 
chafed by being carried along in a current of water. In a great 
many, decay has begun at the extremities; and numerous frag¬ 
ments were found, the fracture of which appeared to me to have 
taken place when the bones were dead and dry. Some speci¬ 
mens were so fresh in appearance that they might have been 
supposed to belong to animals recently killed : these were found 
near springs, of which there are two or three in the marsh. 
Others were as black as ebony; and some found by the side of a 
“ Bois de Natte” tree [Labourdonneia revoluta) were nearly the 
colour of mahogany, but became much paler in drying. 
Bones of the same sort were found mostly near each other, 
one spot containing many pelves, another several sterna, and 
so on. 
Among the bones of the Dodo were found many belonging to 
the Flamingo, formerly abundant in Mauritius ; to the Whim- 
brel, still common there; to the Gallinule, also plentiful at pre¬ 
sent ; and to the Egret, which has disappeared within the present 
