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Show 350 PROF. NEWTON ON THE DODO. [May 4, vain for the promised memoir. A few days ago M . Alphonse Milne- Edwards was so good as to send m e tracings of the sketches, which he had obtained during a recent visit to Leyden ; and I now have the pleasure of showing them to the Members of the Society present. " The figures of the Dodo do not call for much remark ; but no one can look at them without perceiving that, rough as they are, they must have been drawn by no common hand and evidently from the life. The various attitudes in which the bird is represented certainly assist us in forming a conception of what it must have been like. " The sketch of Aphanapteryx would seem to have been taken from a freshly-killed bird, as it might have lain on the ground before the limner. But this also, so far as I can judge, does not add to our knowledge of this remarkable form, which we have already so well depicted by Hoefnagel. "The remaining tracing is of more importance. I think Prof. Schlegel is clearly right in assigning it to Psittacus mauritianus, Owen*, which we only know from a few bones. The most extraordinary feature it presents is perhaps the frontal crest, of a shape quite unlike that found, so far as I am aware, in any other form of Parrot, rising as it does from the very base of the bill and terminating before it reaches the occiput, which appears to be flat and smooth. No sooner did I see this singular crest than it struck me that the figure of a bird given in one of the plates to Van Neck's Voyage, which has always been a puzzle to everybody, must have been intended for this species. The plate was copied in facsimile for Strickland's workt; and the description of this particular figure (5) is given by him thus :- "' 5 est un oiseau de nous nomme Corbeau Indien, ayant la grandeur plus d'une fois que les Parroquets, de double et triple couleur.' " He, it is true, says of it' A species of Buceros' (p. 10, note); but no species of that genus, or any thing like it, has been seen from Mauritius, and I cannot help thinking that the figure must refer to P. mauritianus. If the sketch I now exhibit can be trusted as to the shortness of the bird's wings, it is very suggestive. " Professors Owen (loc. cit.) and A. Milne-Edwards (Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, vi. pp. 91-111) have pointed out several osteological characters which distinguish this Parrot; and the latter has shown that it cannot be referred to any of the established genera or subgenera of Psittaci. I would therefore propose the name of L O P H O - PSITTACUS for the group of which it is the type-the only known external character that we can as yet depend upon being that afforded by the singular frontal crest. " In conclusion, I have to add that Strickland states (p. 13) that in the published accounts of Harmanszoon's voyage no mention of Dodos occurs. It is, however, evident that there was some one of his company well employed in taking notes; and it is only to be hoped that Prof. Schlegel will not much longer delay to print them." The following papers were read : - * Ibis, 1866, p. 168. t ' The Dodo and it* Kindred,' pl. ii. |