Appendices 133 
script, as that of a ‘ grosse Oye ’; while Castleton, or rather 
Tatton, 1 and Carre, 2 both give the Solitaire the size of a Turkey. 
Strickland’s 3 opinion on this bird runs as follows: c I should 
have been disposed to refer the “Oiseau bleu” to the genus 
Porphyrio , were we not told that they were the size of the 
Solitaire , i.e. of a large Goose, that the feet resembled those of a 
hen, and that they never fly.’ These objections are, however, 
of no value; for, first, we know a species of Porphyrio (the 
Notornis mantelli of New Zealand) which is nearly as big as a 
Goose; secondly, there are several species of Waterhens, whose 
feet are like those of a Hen, or in other words, which have thick 
feet with toes short in proportion, as, for instance, Tribonyx , 
Ocydromus, and Notornis; thirdly, the wings also of Notorjiis 
and Ocydromus are unfit for flight, and the quills of the last- 
named bird are even as soft as ordinary feathers. The guarded, 
though incorrect opinion of Strickland, has been followed by the 
strange theory De Selys-Longchamps 4 concerning the Oiseau 
bleu of Bourbon; for he has referred this bird to one and the 
same family as the entirely 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, 5 where, besides, the greatest confusion prevails with 
respect to the extinct birds of the Mascarene Islands; the Oiseau 
bleu appears in an independent 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 com¬ 
pound genus. 
When we attentively consider the account of the Oiseau bleu , 
every one will be disposed to admit, that although 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 power¬ 
ful figure, the thick tibiae (clothed with feathers nearly to the 
extremity), the short toes, and the short thick neck. 6 The sup- 
1 Purchas’ Pilgrimes , 1625, i. p. 331. 
2 Voyages , i. p. 12. 3 Op. cit. p. 59. 
4 Revue Zoologique , Octobre 1848, p. 3 [potius, p. 294]. 
5 Conspectus Avium , Leiden, 8vo, ii. p. 3. 
6 For similar reasons we regard Tribonyx, or even Ocydromus, as the 
galline form of the Gallinulse. 
