| OCR Text |
Show 1878.] PROF. NEWTON ON PEZOPHAPS SOLITARIA. 291 Mr. Sclater exhibited a stuffed Coot belonging to the Museum of Science and Art at Edinburgh and believed to be the typical specimen of Fulica gallinuloides of King (Zool. Journ. iv. p. 96), and showed that it was really an example of Fulica leucoptera, Vieillot, and not of Fulica armitlata, as he and Mr. Salvin (P. Z. S. 1868, p. 465 et Ex. Orn. p. 115), misled by Capt. King's imperfect description, had supposed. Professor Newton, M.A., F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., exhibited a stone sent him by Mr. Caldwell, C.M.Z.S., and remarked :- "The veracity of the earliest writer who treated at any length of the Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) affords a pleasing contrast with that of the latest. Many of the statements put forth by Leguat concerning that bird have already been curiously confirmed; and I have much pleasure in laying before the Society what appears to be another proof of his accuracy. Writing of the hen Solitaires he says:- " 'On leur trouve toujours dans le gesier (aussi bien qu'aux males) une pierre brune de la grosseur d'un Oeuf de poule; elle est un peu raboteuse, platte d'un cote & arrondie de l'autre, fort pesante, & fort dure. Nous avons juge que cette pierre nait avec eux; parce que quelque jeunes qu'ils soient, ils en ont toujours, & n'en ont jamais qu'une ; & qu'outre cela, le canal qui va du jabot au gesier, est trop etroit de moitie' pour donner passage a une pareille masse. Nous nous en servions preferablement a aucune autre pierre, pour aiguiser nos couteaux'1. "When Mr. H . H. Slater was appointed by the Royal Society Naturalist to the Transit-of-Venus Expedition in Rodriguez, I especially drew his attention to this statement; but I have understood frOm him that, notwithstanding his careful examination of the caves of that island, he never found any thing bearing out Leguat's assertion. Shortly after his return, our Corresponding Member, Mr. Caldwell, of Mauritius, visited Rodriguez, as the Society is already aware (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 644-647). He was, as he has told us, more fortunate, and obtained three or four of what he believes to be the stones mentioned by Leguat. One of these he has been so good as to give to m y brother, Mr. Edward Newton; and on behalf of both those gentlemen I now exhibit it. You will see that in most respects it agrees closely with the description of Leguat. It is brown, somewhat rough, heavy and hard. It is hardly, however, flattened on one side ; and in connexion with that fact I may remark that the bird with whose remains it was associated appears to have been young. Its mineralogical nature has yet to be determined ; but before it is cut up for that purpose I thought the Members of the Society would like to see it. Its weight is a little over If oz. "Mr. Caldwell has also been so kind as to furnish me with some remarks on this and the other specimens he obtained ; but his state- 1 Voyages et Avantures de Francois Leguat &c. Londres : MDCCVIII vol. i p. 100. 19* |
