Abstract
I AM at a loss to understand how Didunculus can be called “a near congener” of the Dodo, as Mr. Searles V. Wood, apparently following Dr. Litton Forbes (whose paper I have not seen), terms it (suprà, p. 220). The two birds, so far from being congeneric, belong to perfectly distinct groups of the Order Columbæ, and nearly thirty years ago Bonaparte treated them as the types of distinct families—Dididæ and Didunculidæ—an example which has been generally followed by the best authorities. If Mr. Wood will refer to a paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1869 (pp. 327-362) I think he will see that there is good ground for not attaching much importance to the slight and superficial characters in which Didunculus resembles the Dididæ.
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NEWTON, A. Zoological Geography—Didus and Didunculus. Nature 18, 251 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018251a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018251a0
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