154 Prof. Schlegel on some Extinct Gigantic Birds 
Hamel * takes it for a struthious bird which, as well as the 
Solitaire of Rodriguez, has been exterminated since Leguat’s 
time. Our reasons why this opinion is entirely incorrect are 
the following:—1st, because the Geant of Leguat has a perfect 
tail with quills and under tail-coverts which reach to its end, 
and that this tail is carried erect, which is never found among 
the struthious birds; 2ndly, that the toes are extraordinarily 
long and slender, and not short and very thick as in all known 
struthious birds; 3rdly, that the gape by no means extends, as 
in the struthious birds, under the eye; 4thly, that the feet are 
covered over their whole length and breadth with large plates 
—and not partially or entirely with scales, as seen in the stru¬ 
thious birds; 5thly, that in LeguaPs description and figure 
there is no appearance of the peculiar form of the feathers of 
the struthious birds, whereas he makes this to be so distinctly 
seen in his Solitaire; 6thly, that this bird lived in marshy 
places, where the struthious birds do not abide; 7thly, that it 
could fly; and 8thly and lastly, that one had been carried away 
by a storm from Mauritius to Rodriguez, more than a hundred 
[about three hundred English] miles distant—a sea-voyage 
which such heavy birds as the Struthionidce could not possibly 
perform. 
Strickland f has perpetually expressed the opinion that this 
bird has simply been a Flamingo, although the description of it 
gave him the impression of a Stork. This opinion is really as 
strange as that of Hamel; for, 1st, the physiognomy or, if you 
will, the habitus of the bird is quite different; 2ndly, neither the 
figure nor the description of the bill show any resemblance to 
that of the Flamingo {; 3rdly, the neck of the Flamingo is 
* “Der Dodo,die Einsiedler und der erdichtete Nazarvogel” in the ‘Bul¬ 
letin Phys.-Math. de l’Acad. de St. Petersbourg,’ 1848, vol. vii. Nos. 5, 6 
[pp. 65-96]. 
f The Dodo, &c., pp. 60 and 64. Strickland’s own words are “The 
fact is that these Geans are evidently (notwithstanding the Stork-like 
aspect of Leguat’s plate at page 171) Flamingos.' 1 ' 
f Leguat’s expression, “ ils ont un bee d’oye,” should evidently, and 
especially from the addition of “mais un peu plus pointu,” be understood 
as having reference to the form in general, and not to the lamellce which 
the bill of the Flamingo has in common with that of the Geese. When 
Leguat says of his Solitaire (i. p. 98) “les males ont les pieds de coq 
