(PLATE 32.)
_Oyseaux bleus_ Le Sieur D.B., Les Voyages aux Isles Dauphine and
Bourbon, pp. 170, 171 (1674).
_Apterornis coerulescens_ Selys-Longchamps, Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 294.
The original description of the Sieur D.B. (Dubois) is as follows
(translated):--"_Oyseaux bleus_: As big as the Solitaires; they have the
plumage entirely blue, the beak and the feet red and made like those of
fowls; they do not fly at all, but run extremely quickly, so that a dog can
hardly catch them; they are very good."
Habitat: Bourbon or Réunion.
Dubois gives the size of these birds as the same as that of a big goose and
the feet as being like those of a fowl: I have, therefore, in
reconstructing the plate of this bird, had it made intermediate in
structure between the New Zealand _Notornis_ and _Aptornis_, which were
evidently its nearest allies.
{147}