EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

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NOTES ON THE DODO.

I have to thank "Mr. S.W. SINGER" (No. 22. p. 353.) for giving some
interesting replies to my "Dodo Queries" (No. 17. p. 261.). I trust that
Mr. S. will be induced to pursue the inquiry further, and especially to
seek for some _Portuguese_ account of the Mascarene Islands, prior to
the Dutch expedition of 1598. I am now able to state that the supposed
proof of the discovery of Bourbon by the Portuguese in 1545, on the
authority of a stone pillar, the figure of which Leguat has copied {411}
from Du Qesne, who copied it from Flacourt, turns out to be inaccurate.
On referring to Flacourt's _Histoire de la Grande Isle Madagascar_,
4to., Paris, 1658, p. 344, where the original figure of this monument is
given, I find that the stone was not found in Bourbon at all, but in
"l'Islet des Portugais," a small island at the mouth of the river
Fanshere (see Flacourt, p. 32.), near the S.E. extremity of Madagascar.
From this place Flacourt removed it to the neighbouring settlement of
Fort Dauphin in 1653, and engraved the arms of France on the opposite
side to those of Portugal. We are therefore still without any historical
record of the first discovery of Bourbon and Mauritius, though, from the
unanimous consent of later compilers, we may fairly presume that the
Portuguese were the discoverers.

The references which Mr. Singer has given to two works which mention the
_Oiseau bleu_ of Bourbon, are very important, as the only other known
authority for this extinct bird is the MS. Journal of Sieur D.B., which
thus receives full confirmation. May I ask Mr. Singer whether either of