xxviii Introduction 
Another witness as to the existence of the Oyseaux 
bleus in Bourbon at a later date is M. de Villers, who 
was Governor of Bourbon from June 1701 to August 
1709. His observations were published by M. La Roque 
in 1716. M. de Villers explored the elevated tract, 
known as la plaine des Caffres , where he saw a great 
number of these Oiseaux bleus \ who there nest, he says, 
in the grass and aquatic ferns. 1 
Professor Newton has no doubt in his own mind that 
the Oyseau bleu was a Porphyrio, but whether specifically 
identical with that of Madagascar none can say. 2 
Mr. Dellon, Docteur en Medecine, author of the Relation 
de VInquisition de Goa, who was at Bourbon in 1668, when 
serving on La Force , mentions the existence of a bird in 
that island named Flamand, i.e. Flamingo. 3 He says:— 
‘ The only one needing the use of a gun is called flamand ; 
it is as big as a turkey, its neck and its legs are four or five feet 
in length, and the difficulty of catching it makes it more rare 
than the others.’ 
Whilst the last evidence of the Dodo’s existence in 
Mauritius shows its survival in that island till 1681, the 
allied Solitaire of Bourbon is supposed to have escaped 
extermination till a considerably later period. At least, 
if we can believe the information gathered by M. Auguste 
Billiard in 1819, 4 it would seem that M. de La Bourdonnais 
sent to one of the directors of the French East India 
Company a specimen of the Dronte or Solitaire , as a rare 
curiosity—whether alive or dead is not stated. On this 
evidence Strickland remarks: ‘ Now M. de La Bour¬ 
donnais was Governor of the Isles of France and Bourbon 
from 1735 to 1746, so that these singular birds must 
have survived till the former, and may have continued 
1 Voyage de VArable Heureuse. Par M. La Roque. Paris, 1715, p. 204. 
2 Vide Remarks on Oiseaux Bleus, p. 77, in Notes at end of vol. 
3 Nouvelle Relation dlun Voyage fait aux Indes Orientates . Par Mr. 
Dellon. Amsterdam, 1699, p. 15. 4 Voyage aux Colonies Orientates , p. 261. 
