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Show 1S92.] SIR E. NEWTON AND DR. H. GADOW ON THE DODO. 543 which he observed, and possibly those seen by Mr. Sweet near Bristol, may have belonged to Sylvia nisoria-a'species with which British ornithologists had at that time little or no acquaintance." Mr. F. Finn, F.Z.S., gave an account of his recent zoological excursion to Zanzibar, and of the principal animals observed at Lamu, Zanzibar, and Mombasa. Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell, F.Z.S., read a description of a remarkable new Echinoderm of the genus Cidaris from Mauritius, taken from a specimen recently transmitted to the British Museum by M . de Robillard. Prof. Bell proposed to call this species Cidaris curvati-spinis. This paper will be published in the Society's ' Transactions.' A communication was read from Sir Edward Newton, K.C.M.G., C.M.Z.S., and Hans Gadow, Ph.D., M.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., containing an account of some of the bones of the Dodo and other extinct birds of Mauritius, recently obtained by Mr. Theodore Sauzier, of which the following is an abstract:- In 1889 the Government of Mauritius appointed a Commission to enquire into the "Souvenirs Historiques " of that island; and in furtherance of their object, at the instance of and under the able direction of their President, Mr. Theodore Sauzier, they continued the exploration of the Mare aux Songes-the marsh in which the late Mr. George Clark, upwards of five-and-twenty years ago, made the discovery of a vast deposit of bones of the Dodo * and other animals, mostly now extinct, and the only locality in Mauritius, except Riche Mare, in the district of Flacq, where remains of the Dodo have been found 2. This exploration has been very successful, for not only have many Dodos' bones, some of them new and others represented only by imperfect specimens, been recovered, but also a considerable number of the bones of other birds, materially adding to our knowledge of those that had been but partially described, and proving the former existence in Mauritius of species either vaguely indicated by old voyagers or wholly unsuspected to have been members of its iauna. Beside these there have been found many remains of the large extinct Lizard, Didosaurus mauritianus 3, and several carapaces, plastrons, and skulls, more or less entire, though none absolutely perfect, belonging to one or other of the extirpated Tortoises. Nearly the whole of these specimens have been sent by Mr. Sauzier, on behalf of the Commission over which he presided, to the Museum at Cambridge, with a view to their determination and to the description of such as are new, and this task has been undertaken by the present writers. Before proceeding to its execution, it may be as well to recall the 1 Ibis, 1866, pp. 141 et scqq. 2 Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1890, pp. 402 et scqq. 3 (jfunther, Journal of the Linnean Society, Zoology, xiii. pp. 322 et seqq. 37* |
