Transactions of the Zoological Society of London Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862 edition. Excerpt: ...which are now becoming generally adopted as zoological truths. On the other hand, the fact of the comparative proximity in geographical position of these two islands would lead us to expect in Rodriguez a recurrence of the same organic structures, but with specific or even generic modifications, which characterize the fauna of Mauritius. Accordingly, it is highly interesting to find, that the bones of extinct birds which have been found at Rodriguez do in fact present, at once, a close zoological affinity and a marked specific diversity, in their relations to that extraordinary bird, the Dodo, for which Mauritius has long been celebrated. The bones of extinct birds which have been brought from Rodriguez are altogether eighteen in number, and were collected at two distinct periods. First, is a collection of six bones found in 1789, in a cavern in Rodriguez, where they had become incrusted with stalagmite. Five of these are in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and one is in my own collection. Secondly, we have the series of bones, twelve in number, procured in 1831 by the exertions of the late Mr. Telfair. These were found in a cavern, probably the same one in which the former series were found; but instead of being exposed, on the floor of the cave, to stalagmitic incrustations, they were buried in the alluvial soil at the entrance (see Proceedings of Zool. Soc. Part i. p. 31). They are consequently in much better preservation than the bones of the former series, and are wholly free from incrustation. Of these bones, six are in the Andersonian Museum at Glasgow, one is in my possession, and five are the property of the Zoological Society, and form the especial subject of this memoir. The bones of theirs series, or those procured in...