164 Prof. Schlegel on some Extinct Gigantic Birds 
struthious Solitaire of Bourbon and the Apteryx-like Dodos of 
Herbert and Van den Broecke, and has given it the name of 
Apterornis ccerulescens. Finally, in Bonaparte*, where, besides, 
the greatest confusion prevails with respect to the extinct birds 
of the Mascarene Islands, the Oiseau hleu appears in an inde¬ 
pendent genus under the name of Cyanornis erythrorhyncha , and 
there is incomprehensibly added, as a synonym of the species, the 
Dodo of Van den Broecke, while the Dodo of Herbert makes a 
second species of this compound genus. 
When we attentively consider the account of the Oiseau bleu, 
every one will be disposed to admit that, though very short, it 
cannot be applied to any other bird than a Porphyrio, and 
especially, indeed, to the aberrant form of that genus known as 
Notornis, which we would regard as representing the galline 
form among the Porphyrios, particularly in consequence of the 
powerful figure, the thick tibise (clothed with feathers nearly to 
the extremity), the short toes, and the short, thick neckf. The 
supposition that this Oiseau bleu was such a species of Porphyrio, 
is strongly supported by the fact that the various species of the 
genus range from the most southern part of Europe, over the 
whole of Africa, Madagascar, the East Indies to further India, 
Australia, and New Zealand, and that thus the Mascarene Islands 
are contained within the geographical area of this form. That 
the Oiseau bleu was bigger than the species of Porphyrio known 
to us is an objection which will fall when we consider that 
Notornis also exceeds remarkably the remaining species; and 
that the southern hemisphere produces other species of the 
family more or less gigantic in proportion, and at the same 
time often different, as, for instance, Notornis under Porphyrio, 
Tribonyx and our Giant under Gallinula, Fulica gigas of Peru 
among the Coots, and finally the gigantic and strange Palamedece, 
which, however, inhabit the whole of tropical America. That 
the Oiseau bleu had wings not fit for flight must not surprise us, 
as Notornis has similar wings, and as, moreover, a considerable 
number of other birds in the Mascarene Islands, as also in New 
* Conspectus Avium. Leiden, 8vo, ii. p. 3. 
t For similar reasons we regard Tribonyx , or even Ocydromus, as the 
galline form of the Gallinula ?. 
