of the Mascarene Islands. 153 
Rodriguez in a hole which he made in the trunk of a hard 
tree*. 
After having placed, as I think, the truthfulness of Leguat 
beyond all doubt, I pass on to his account of the bird, which I 
take to be an unknown gigantic species. Speaking of the pro¬ 
ductions of the island of Mauritius, he says, among other 
things t? “ On voit * * * beaucoup de certains oiseaux qu’on 
appelle Geans, paree que leur tete s’eleve a la hauteur d’environ 
six pieds. Ils sont extremement haut montez, & ont le cou fort 
long. Le corps n’est pas plus gros que celui d’une Oye. Ils sont 
tout blancs, excepte un endroit sous Fade qui est un peu rouge. 
Ils ont un bee d ; oye, mais un peu plus pointu; & ses doits des pieds 
separez, & fort longs. Ils paissent dans les lieux marecageux, & 
les Chiens les surprennent souvent, a cause qufil leur faut beau- 
coup de temps pour s’elever de terre. Nous en vimes un jour un a 
Rodrigue , & nous le primes a la main tant il etoit gras: c’est le seul 
que nous y ayons remarque; ce qui me fait croire qufil y avoit 
ete pousse par quelque vent a la force duquel il n^avoit pu resister. 
Ce gibier est assez bon.” This description is accompanied by a 
figure which represents the bird at about one twenty-fifth of its 
natural size. I shall now further explain this description and 
figure. The better, however, to do this and to obtain a more 
obvious idea of this bird, I have given in Figure 1 [p. 156] the 
representation of Leguat J. 
Let us, meanwhile, first examine what has been the opinion 
of other naturalists about this bird. Hamel and Strickland 
are, so far as I know, the only persons who have offered their 
opinions on the subject §. They had not the least doubt as to 
the existence of this large animal; nor can such be possible, 
since the accounts of Leguat are too precise, and he observed it 
on two islands at a considerable distance from each other; but 
they have, in our opinion, completely mistaken this bird. 
* Op. cit. i. pp. 67, 156; ii. p. 60. f Ibid. ii. p. 72. 
t In the lecture at the ordinary meeting of the Natural-History Section 
of the Loyal Academy of Sciences on the 31st October, 1857, it was shown 
of the natural size. 
§ We find also in Valentyn, V. ii. p. 152, some remarks on the Geant 
of Leguat, evidently derived from that author himself. Valentyn’s in¬ 
quiry whether this Geant may perhaps be the Dodo needs no further 
explanation in our time. 
