159 
of the Mascarene Islands. 
other species of the family*? Human knowledge fails to answer 
these questions, and they will accordingly, it is probable, always 
remain riddles to us, the more so as this magnificent creature, 
like so many others, is withdrawn for ever from our gaze. 
We have still another question to decide, how it comes that 
Leguat is the only writer who has observed this gigantic Water- 
hen of Mauritius, while the voyagers who visited the island 
before him speak of several other most remarkable birds which 
they met with, but not this one. To explain the fact, one must 
evidently infer that the voyagers only made mention of the 
productions which they met with in the neighbourhood of their 
anchoring-places, and that the giant bird of Leguat did not 
frequent those places, because there were no marshes. This is 
no doubt the case with the harbour on the south-east coast 
where the ships regularly came to land, and where stood, in 
Leguat’s time and long after, the only port in the island. All 
travellers report that the ground then was stony and unfruitful. 
It was at this place that the companions of Van Neck and 
his successors observed the Dodo and the other birds which they 
describe. One must therefore suppose that Leguat and his 
comrades, who passed through the wildernesses lying on the 
other side of the island, where fowling furnished them without 
trouble with abundant foodf, met with our gigantic bird by the 
rivers and marshes of these districts, while they were unknown 
to those who from time to time landed and again departed, 
as well as to the Europeans dwelling in the fort. In Leguat’s 
* [Since Prof. Schlegel’s paper was written, attention has been called 
to the White Gallinule, figured in Phillip’s 1 Voyage to Botany Bay/ &c., 
London, 1789 (p. 273), and in White’s ‘ Journal of a Voyage to New 
South Wales,’ &c., London, 1790 (p. 238)—a bird which is said to have 
formerly inhabited Lord Howe’s and Norfolk Islands. This species Dr. 
von Pelzeln refers (Sitz. Akad. Wien, xli. p. 331) to the genus Notornis 
/ (Cf. Ibis, 1860, pp. 422, 423) j and Mr. G. R. Gray (Ibis, 1862, p. 240) . 
to that of Porphyria. We only know of two specimens still existing, one 
at Vienna, obtained from the Leverian Museum, the other in the Derby 
Museum at Liverpool, from Bullock’s collection. It would be very 
interesting to know if the bird is still found on either of the islands 
named, and we trust our ornithological friends at the antipodes will en¬ 
deavour to ascertain the fact. It is the Gallinula alba of Latham. —Ed.] 
t Leguat, op. cit. ii. p. 9. 
