C H A P T E R I I .
The Brevipennate Bird of Rodriguez, the S o l it a ir e .
(Pezophaps solitaria, nobis B Didus solitarius of Gmelin.)
Evidence of Leguat ; o f Herbert—Bones sent to the Paris Museum ; to the Andersonian Museum at Glasgow ;
to the Zoological Society o f London—Affinities o f the Solitaire.
I n ow proceed to notice another bird of equally remarkable structure to the Dodo, and the
evidence, both historical and osteologicaJ, of whose existence, though less abundant, is equally
positive. The Island of Rodriguez, which is about fifteen miles long by six broad, and
situated about three hundred miles to the east of Mauritius, gave birth to an apterous bird
called the Solitaire,1 which seems to have been an homologous representative of the Dodo in
the last-mentioned island.2 Rodriguez appears to have remained in a desert and uninhabited
condition until 1691, when a party of French Protestant refugees settled upon the island,
and remained there for two years. Their commander, François Leguat, a man of intelligence
and education, has left a highly interesting account of their adventures, and of the various
productions of the island. The chief portion of his work which concerns us at present
I will extract in the French original, accompanied by an old translation.
1 The name Solitaire had originally been given to an allied, though doubtless distinct, bird in Bourbon, of
which we shall speak presently. Leguat (who never visited Bourbon) probably supposed the Rodriguez bird to be
the same species, and therefore gave it the name which other voyagers had imposed on the Bourbon bird. But as
Leguat’s bird is the type of the “ Didus solitarius ” of systematists, I prefer retaining for it par excellence the
name of Solitaire.
2 Representation in Zoology is of two kinds, analogous and homologous. Analogous representation is where a
group or species in one part of the organic creation performs a similar office, and is, quoad hoc, similarly organized,
to a group or species in another part : e. g., the Cetacea among Mammals represent by analogy the Fish among
Vertebrata. This kind of representation exists irrespectively of time and space. Homologous representation is
where two groups or species in the same pa/rt of the organic creation perform a similar office in different geographical
regions, or at different times. Thus the Elephants of India and of Africa represent each other by homology in
space, as the Mammoth and modem Elephants do in time. See Philosophical Magazine, Ser. 3. vol. xxviii. p. 354.
F ria r’s Hood. Diamond Island .