60 EVIDENCES OF BREVIPENNATE [P art I.
bat, denominated V Oiseau bleu, which are skinned and eaten as a great delicacy;” ; This is
evidently a blunder, as regards the “ Oiseau bleu ” being a bat, but it proves that some
author besides the Sieur D. B. has noticed the Oiseau bleu of Bourbon, though I have been
unable to discover from what work this statement is copied.
6. We have evidence that one, at least, of these apterous1 species of birds continued to
inhabit Bourbon till nearly the middle of the last century. M. Billiard, who resided in
that island between 1817 and 1820, and appears to have had access to some of the original
archives of the island, tells us that at the time of its first colonization “ the woods were filled
with birds which were not alarmed at the approach of man. Among these was the Dodo ov
Solitaire, which was pursued on foot; they were still to be seen in the time of M. de la
Bourdonnaye, who sent a specimen as a curiosity to one of the Directors of the Company.”
Now M. de la Bourdonnaye was Governor of the Isles of Prance and Bourbon from 1735 to
1746, so that these singular birds must have survived till the former, and may have continued
till the latter date at least.
7. .In Grant’s Mauritius, p. 167, is an.extract from “ Observations on the Isle of Bourbon
in 1763, by an Officer of the British Navy,” which may possibly indicate that these singular
birds survived in that island as recently as the above date
“ The plain des Caffres is formed by the summits of mountains at a very considerable elevation
above the sea..................On this elevated plain there are small trees, with broom, furze, a kind of
wild oat, and fern* which grows .to the height of a shrub. There are also some curious birds which
never descend to the sea-side, and who are so little accustomed to,' or alarmed at, the sight of man,
that they suffer themselves to be killed by the stroke of a walking-stick.”
Whether the “ curious birds” here alluded toj be referable to the brevipennate group or
not, does not appear, but it seems certain that in 1801, when Bory St.* Vincent made a
careful scientific survey of the Island of Bourbon, no such birds were then in existence. I g i
Our evidence respecting the brevipennate birds of Bourbon is at present confined to
Historical testimony. . No delineations of these creatures appear to be now extant, and their
osseous remains have never yet been sought for, and have consequently never yet been found.
We cannot therefore at present decide whether these extinct birds were more allied to the
Dodo of Mauritius, or to the Ostrich of Africa, though from the descriptions given, the former
supposition is most probable. We naturally look to the little-known island of Madagascar
as the region most likely to contain birds allied by affinity to those of Bourbon. No recent
-1 The reader must beware of adducing an additional testimony from a passage which that careless compiler,
Grant, in his chapter on Bourbon, professes to quote from Du Quesne:—“ The Giant and the Dodo are large birds
of an extraordinary height, which frequent the rivers and lakes, and whose flesh is like that of the Bittern.”
(Hist, of Mauritius, p. 154.) In Du Quesne’s account of Bourbon (drawn up apparently as an emigrant-trap) as
quoted. by Leguat, p. 56 (for I have not been able to find the original), the words are “ Les Geans sont de grands
oiseaux monies sur des ¿chasses,” &c. The words “ and the Dodo ” are therefore an interpolation of Grant’s, nor
does the English translator of Leguat mend the matter (p. 41), by rendering Geans into Peacocks! The fact is,
that these Geans are evidently (notwithstanding the Stork-like aspect of Leguat’s plate at p. 171) Flamingos.
Ch. III.] BIRDS IN MADAGASCAR. 61
travellers have alluded to the existence of any Struthious or brevipennate birds in Madagascar,
though from the following passage in Flacourt’s Histoire delà grande Isle Madagascar, published
at Paris in 1658, 4to., it appears that a bird of that family-inhabited Madagascar less
than two centuries ago. Flacourt tells us that “ the Vouron paira is a large bird which
frequents the region of Ampatres [a province at the south extremity of Madagascar] and lays
eggs like the Ostrich. I t is a kind of Ostrich ; the inhabitants are unable to capture it, and
it inhabits the most desert places.”
“ Oyseaux-qui hantent les bois. Vov/ron patra, c’est un grand oyseau qui hante les Ampatres et
fait des oeufs comme PAutruche; c’est une espèce d’Autruche; ceux des dits lieux ne le peuvent
prendre; il cherche les lieux les plus déserts.”-—p. 165.
This brief indication may perhaps guide the future explorer of Madagascar to a discovery
of great zoological interest.
On a review of the various Historical and Osteological evidences which I have now
brought together, it seems sufficiently: clear that the three oceanic islands, Mauritius, Rodriguez,
and Bourbon, which, though somewhat remote from each other, may be considered as
forming one geographical group, were inhabited, until the time of their human colonization,
by at least four distinct, but probably allied, species of brevipennate birds. This result at
once reminds us of the analogous case of the New Zealand group of islands, where the
scientific zeal of Messrs. Cotton, Williams, Colenso, Mantell, and others, has brought to
light a mine of osteological treasures, from which the consummate sagacity of Prof. Owen
has re-cbnstructed two' new genera of brevipennate birds. Seven species of Dinornis and two
of Palapteryx have been clearly established and. elaborately described by Professor Owen,
while in the still surviving genus Apteryx, of which Mr. Gould has very recently described a
second species, we see an almost expiring member of the same zoological group.1
The extraordinary success of . the naturalists of New Zealand, in procuring from recent
alluvial deposits a series of osseous remains which have more than doubled the number of
Struthioid birds previously known, should encourage the' scientific residents in the islands of
the Indo-African Sea to make similar -researches... I feel confident that if an active naturalist
would make a series of excavations in the alluvial deposits, in the beds of streams, and
amid the ruins of old habitations in Mauritius, Bourbon, and Rodriguez, he would speedily
discover remains of the Dodo, the two “ Solitaires,” or the “ Oiseau bleu!' But I would
1 The recent discovery of the heads of Dinornis and Palapteryx has proved that these two genera are not so
nearly allied as was at first supposed. Professor Owen read a paper on the subject to the Zoological Society,
January 11th, 1848, in which he shows that “ the beak of Palapteryx is decidedly Struthious. The beak and skull
of Dinornis differ very essentially from any form, either' recent or extinct.”—{Athenaeum, no. 1057, p. 116). In a
recent communication to the Geological Society, Feb. 2nd, 1848, Dr. Mantell states that the ornithic bones sent by
his son from New Zealand are referable to no less than five genera.—{Athenaeum, no. 1061, p. 218).