Extinct Birds Part 42

DIDUS SOLITARIUS (SELYS).

REUNION DODO.

(PLATES 25, 25A, 25B.)

_Great Fowl_ Tatton, Voy. Castleton, Purchas his Pilgrimes, ed. (1625) I p. 331 (Bourbon or Reunion).

_Dod-eersen_ Bontekoe, Journ. ofte gedenck. beschr. van de Ost. Ind.

Reyse Haarlem (1646) p. 6.

_Oiseau Solitaire_ Carre, Voy. Ind. Or. I p. 12 (1699).

_Solitaire_ Voy. fait par Le Sieur D.B. (1674) p. 170.

_Apterornis solitarius_ de Selys, Rev. Zool (1848) p. 293.

_Didus apterornis_ Schlegel, Ook een Wordje over den Dodo p. 15 f. 2 (1854).

_Pezophaps borbonica_ Bp., Consp. Av. II p. 2 (1854).

_Ornithaptera borbonica_ Bp., Consp. Av. II. p. 2 (1854).

_Didine Bird of the Island of Bourbon_ (_Reunion_) A. Newt. Tr. Zool.

Soc. VI pp. 373-376, pl. 62 (1867).

_Apterornis solitaria_ Milne-Edw., Ibis (1869) p. 272.

_? Didus borbonica_ Schleg., Mus. P.B. Struthiones p. 3 (1873).

_Solitaire of Reunion_ A. Newton, Enc. Brit. II p. 732 (1875).

The Didine bird of Reunion was first mentioned by Mr. Tatton, the Chief Officer of Captain Castleton, in his account of their voyage given in Purchas his Pilgrimes. His account is as follows:--

"There is store of land fowle both small and great, plenty of Doves, great Parrats, and such like; and a great fowle of the bignesse of a Turkie, very fat, and so short winged, that they cannot fly, being white, and in a manner tame: and so be all other fowles, as having not been troubled nor feared with shot. Our men did beat them down with sticks and stones. Ten men may take fowle enough to serve fortie men a day."

We then find frequent mention of this bird by Bontekoe in 5 separate treatises or editions, from 1646 to 1650, and by Carre in 1699. But the first more detailed description is given by the Sieur D.B. (Dubois) in 1674, which is as follows:--

"_Solitaires._ These birds are thus named because they always go alone.

They are as big as a big goose and have white plumage, black at the extremity of the wings and of the tail. At the tail there are some feathers resembling those of the Ostrich. They have the neck long and the beak formed like that of the Woodc.o.c.ks (he refers to the woodrails, _Erythromachus_--W.R.), but larger, and the legs and feet like those of Turkey-chicks. This bird betakes itself to running, only flying but very little. It is the best game on the Island." {176}

It will be seen that, while Dubois says the wings and tail are black, Pierre Witthoos's picture, from which the accompanying plate was partly drawn, shows the wings yellow. This may either be due to Dubois' faulty description, or, what is much more probable, the bird brought to Amsterdam, which Witthoos painted, was somewhat albinistic. The bill in the picture by Witthoos shows a distinctly mutilated bill, evidently done by the bird's keeper to prevent being injured by the formidable hook of the untrimmed bill. In addition to two pictures (the one formerly in the possession of Mr. C. Dare, of Clatterford, in the Isle of Wight, and a second in Holland, both by Pieter Witthoos, painted about the year 1670), we know of this bird only the drawing given in Zaagman's edition of Bontekoe, 1646. In all these drawings the first four primaries point down and forward, which is probably owing to the injured condition of the specimen figured, so in the accompanying plate I had the wing drawn like the true Dodo's and the bill reconstructed.

Habitat: Island of Bourbon or Reunion.

Only known from the above-mentioned descriptions and two drawings. No specimens existing.

This bird became extinct between the years 1735 and 1801, because in the latter year Monsieur Bory St. Vincent made his scientific survey of the Island, and no such bird existed then; while we know that Monsieur de la Bourdonnaye, who was governor of the Mascarene Islands from 1735 to 1746, sent one alive to one of the directors of the French East Indian Company.

Of this, the second living specimen brought to Europe, we unfortunately have neither drawing nor history.

Explanation of Plates.

_Plate 25._

Drawing of White Dodo from Pierre Witthoos' picture, the bill and tail being reconstructed from the model of the common Dodo.

_Plate 25 (a)._

_Fig. 5._ Outline of figure of White Dodo in the picture by Pieter Witthoos circa 1670 vide supra.

_Fig. 8._ Outline of Woodcut in Zaagman's edition of Bontekoe van Hoorn, 1646.

_Fig. 7._ Outline of figure of White Dodo in an edition of Plinius Secundus about 1643 but without date.

_Fig. 4._ Outline of Dr. H. Schlegel's reconstruction of the Reunion Dodo.

_Plate 25 (b)._

Drawing from description of the Sieur D.B. (Dubois), 1674.

{177}

PEZOPHAPS STRICKLAND & MELVILLE.

Skull with a moderate rostrum, slightly hooked, and the nasal and maxillary processes of the praemaxillae diverging anteriorly; the frontal region flat with but little cancellous tissue. Coracoid stout. Ma.n.u.s armed with an ossified tuberosity. Neck and feet long. Delto-pectoral crest of humerus aborted.

This genus connects _Didus_ with the _Columbidae_. The male is much larger than the female.

PEZOPHAPS SOLITARIUS (GM.)

THE SOLITAIRE.

(PLATE 23, 25A, FIGS. 1, 2, 3.)

_Solitaire_ Leguat, Voy. deux iles desertes Ind. Or. I pp. 98. 102 (1708).

_Didus solitarius_ Gmelin, S. N. I p. 728, n. 2 (1788).

_Pezophaps solitaria_ Strickland, the Dodo, &c., p. 46 (1848).

_Didus nazarenus_ Bartl. (nec. Gmel.), P. Z. S. 1851, p. 284, pl. XLV.