0 
O32 
describers to a callus-like mass of diseased bone. Its repetition, however, in all the 
perfect specimens, its association with a similar outgrowth from the radial border of 
the distal end of the radius in the larger examples of that bone, supposed by Messrs. 
Newton to be of the male Solitaire, and the notice of the same structure in the living 
bird by Leguat', show it to be normal in Pezophaps, though, when fully developed, 
perhaps sexual. Such tumefaction of the metacarpus has not been noticed in any of 
the accounts or figures of the living Dodo, and it may well be one of the marks of 
distinction between the Solitaire and Dodo. I should not be disposed, however, to 
assign to the metacarpal knob a higher than specific value. — 
In Didus and Pezophaps the metatarsal bone presents, besides difference of proportions 
illustrated in a paper by Strickland? and in the joint work of Strickland and Melville*, 
differences of structure, which I fix at a like value. As the characters afforded by the 
articular extremities of the metatarsal of Pezophaps are obscured, more or less, by the 
stalagmitic incrustation of the bones figured in pl. 15 of ‘Dodo and its Kindred,’ | 
believe that the subjects of Pl. III. of the present Supplement may not be deemed 
superflous or be unacceptable. 
The metatarsus of Pezophaps is represented by bones of different dimensions, but may 
be said to be, as Strickland recognized them to be, “large” and “small,” the variations 
in these two categories ranging within narrow limits. The two nearly perfect speci- 
mens, a right and left, presented by Professor Newton to the British Museum, are of 
the large size, and would be referred by Strickland to his Pezophaps solitaria. I have 
also had under observation three metatarsi (of the right side) of the small size, by 
which Strickland characterized his Pezophaps minor‘. The following description is 
' “The bone of their wing grows greater towards the extremity, and forms a little round mass under the 
feathers, as big as a musket ball,” Quoted by Messrs. Newton at p. 350 of their memoir. 
* Trans, Zool. Soc. vol. iv. p. 187, pl. 55, 
* © Dodo and its Kindred,’ 4to, 1848, pls. 11 & 15. 
* Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iv. p. 191. One of these specimens is alluded to by the Messrs, Newton as follows ;— 
“Tn addition to these eighteen specimens, we are informed that in 1860 or 1861 a tibia, the shaft of a tarso- 
metatarsal, and some fragments of the shaft of a femur, all of which belonged to the Solitaire, were sent to 
Professor Owen by M. Bouton of the Museum at Mauritius; but the fate of these specimens is unknown to us,” 
They are referred to in the following letter :— . 
*8 Great Ormond Street, Queen Square, W.C., 
“18th December, 1860, 
“Dear Srr,—By the last ‘Overland’ from Mauritius I received from the Curator of the Museum of Port 
Louis the two fragments of bones, which he suspects to be those of the Dodo, and he is anxious to have your 
opinion in the matter. Under these circumstances I have taken the liberty of sending them to you just as they 
came tome on Saturday last. The Curator writes me : ‘Je les ai trouvés dans la Collection du Muséum déposés 
4 cote d'ossements fossiles de Tortues recueillies dans un dépét Calcaire aux Quatre Cocos, 4 Flacq, & une petite 
distance de la mer, No. 1 me parait se rapprocher 4 la figure 1, planche xv, de Strickland, et dans ce eas 
serait un fragment du tibia droit du Solitaire; No. 2 se rapproche de la figure 2a de la planche xy. de 
Strickland, Ce serait dans ce cas le métatarse droit auquel il” manquerait une portion de articulation 
