A valuable paper was contributed, 31st October 1857, to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam (Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen. Afdeeling “Natuurkunde”, vol. vii, p. 116, which was originally written in Dutch; but a translation into German of part of it appeared in the Journal für Ornithologie for 1858) by Professor H. Schlegel, the Director of the National Museum of the Netherlands, “On Extinct Gigantic birds of the Mascarene Islands.” The translation of Schlegel's paper by Mr. Hessels was forwarded by Professor Newton of Cambridge to Dr. Sclater for reproduction in the pages of the Ibis, where it appeared in April 1866, shortly after the discovery of the Didine remains near Mahebourg. (Vide Ibis, New Series, vol. i, pp. 146-168.)

Professor Schlegel announced that hitherto the recent investigations respecting the large birds which had become extirpated in Bourbon, Mauritius, and Rodriguez had entirely overlooked some species, one of which, in height at least, equalled the African Ostrich, and which did not belong to the Dodos, but to quite another order of birds.

“Remains of these birds have not hitherto been found; but we know them from descriptions and a representation, which perhaps may, if rightly understood, give a better and more complete idea of these beings than the obscure sketch which can be obtained of the New Zealand Moas through their numerous remaining bones.[…]”