28 
mutilated behind. The two “ perfect examples” (of sacrum ?] “ of Didus ineptus show 
only sixteen (vertebra), which is probably the normal number in that species.” Op. cit. 
N., p. 334. 
The essential characters of the pelvis show a close correspondence in Didus and 
Pezophaps. ‘The articular surface of the centrum of the last dorsal ” [first * sacral’ by 
the character of conflnence] “is in Pezophaps almost exactly as in Didus”', Other pelvic 
correspondences are seen in the general shape and disposition of the ilia, which, how- 
ever, are not developed behind in Pezophaps so as to give the flatness and breadth to 
the posterior half of the pelyis which seem to specifically characterize the Dodo. The 
position of the skeleton in Pl. II. has been selected to exemplify this peculiarity. 
Other particulars, especially the more essential ones, such as the length, curyature, 
and movable articulation of the ribs of the first sacral vertebra’—the confluence, short- 
ness, and straightness of the pleurapophyses of the next three sacrals—the suppression 
of the rib-elements in the three succeeding vertebra, and their reappearance in the 
eighth and sometimes in the ninth sacral as strong abutments against the ilia above and 
behind the acetabula—and the indications of “ prerenal,” “ midrenal,” and ‘ postrenal ” 
depressions—are all correspondences with the pelvis in Didwnculus and Goura, which 
Pezophaps shows in common with Didus. ; 
The chief difference between Didus and Pezophaps in cranial structure is the degree 
in which the cancellous tissue is developed between the outer and inner “ tables,” the 
minor quantity of that tissue in Pezophaps leaying a flatness of the frontals above the 
orbits contrasting with the convexity of that part of the cranium in Didus (pl. 16. 
fig. 5, text) (Pl. I. Suppl.). I suspect that when the part of the skull of the Solitaire 
may be found, supplying what is wanting in the specimens figured in figs. 149, 150, 
pl. 22 (N.), there will be a depression or concayity in the profile contour between the 
fore part of the frontals and the naso-premaxillaries, which will suggest the presence of 
a “frontal protuberance” differing only in degree from that so called in Didus. Messrs. 
Newton recognize the fact that “the frontals rise abruptly as in Didus”*, the precise 
extent of the “rise” being yet to be determined in Pezophaps, A section of the 
cranium of a Solitaire, like that of the Dodo, in fig. 1, pl. 23 (O.), would, if it had 
been made and figured in N., have afforded ready means of judging of the degree and 
value of the difference in cranial structure of the two extinct Columbaceans. ‘The 
'N,, p. 334, 
* In this, as in my former paper, I adhere to the usual characters of the sacrum afforded by coalescence. 
Messrs. Newton are influenced by its extent—and where it leaves the ribs free, reckon such vertebra as 
“dorsal.” Accordingly my ‘first. sacral” is their “last dorsal.” Anchylosis, like most of the characters of 
the classes of vertebra in anthropotomy, is an artificial one, and might justify the ascription to the Columbacei 
or “Gemitores” of four sacrums, viz. “ candal,’”’ « pelvic,” * lumbar,” and “ dorsal ;” for the vertebra: answering 
to the lumbar and anterior caudals in Mammals and Reptiles are massed with the interacetabular or proper 
pelvic yertebre: into one extensive and complex bone. 
* 'N., p. 347, 
