6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1867. 



Vice-Chancellor and his co-trustees to be burnt ! 

 So disappeared the last of the. Dodos, the head and 

 foot, now in the Aslimolean Museum, being by 

 accident saved from destruction. 



Unwieldly as this bird was, yet it seemed per- 

 fectly fitted for the position in which it existed. The 

 island of Mauritius, when the Dutch took possession 

 of it in 159S, was covered with dense forests of 

 palms and other fruit trees. Professor Bernhardt 

 well remarks, "A bird adapted to feed on the fruits 

 produced by these forests, would, in that equable 

 climate, have no occasion to migrate to distant 

 lands ; it would revel in the perpetual luxuriance of 

 tropical vegetation, and would have but little need 

 of locomotion. Why, then, should it have the means 

 of flying ? Such a bird might wander from tree to 

 tree, tearing with its powerful beak the fruits which 

 strewed the ground, and digesting their stony 

 kernels with its powerful gizzard, enjoying tran- 

 quillity and abundance, until the arrival of man 

 destroyed the balance of animal life, and put a term 

 to its existence. Such, in my opinion, was the 

 Dodo, a colossal, brevipennate, frugivorous pigeon." 



Its flesh does not appear to have been very pala- 

 table, for the Dutch sailors called the bird Walck- 

 vogels, or disgusting birds, from their toughness. 



Much interest has been excited by the discovery 

 of numerous bones of the Dodo, by Mr. Clark, in a 

 marsh, on the estate of M. de Bissy, in Mauritius. 

 This was made so recently as October, 1865, and 

 strongly proves the truth of the narratives of the 

 Dutch navigators as to the numbers of the birds 

 which they found. The Mauritius Commercial 

 Gazette gives an interesting account of Mr. Clark's 

 discovery, stating that all the bones have been 

 found except the toes. Some of these have been 

 sent to Professor Owen, and are now in the British 

 Museum, where our readers may see them. 



And now for the evidence respecting the existence 

 of a white Dodo. In the Illustrated London News, 

 of September, 1856, an engraving appeared of a 

 white Dodo, and a red-necked goose, accompanied 

 by the following information : — " When I was stay- 

 ing with a friend a few days ago, he showed me 

 some old drawings, which he told me were made by 

 an artist in Persia, representing birds of that 

 country. Amongst them was one containing five or 

 six species of waterfowl, all of them common to the 

 north of Europe and Asia, well drawn, and accu- 

 rately coloured, although somewhat faded by age. 

 The two birds, of which I send you an accurate copy 

 of the same size as the original, are in the fore- 

 ground. They represent the Anser ruficoUis (as any 

 ornithologist will at once recognise), and an unknown 

 species of Dodo, differing considerably from that 

 which formerly inhabited the Isles of Bourbon and 

 Mauritius, in the form and colour of the beak, 

 wings, and tail plumes, as well as in the texture 

 and colour of the plumage, but still bearing a strong 



general resemblance to it. Its appearance is so 

 singular, that I should at once have supposed it to 

 be the creature of the artist's imagination, had it 

 not been surrounded by a number of other figures 

 of well-known species; and it is certainly not a 

 little odd that one purely ideal bird should be intro- 

 duced amongst a group of real ones. I should be 

 glad if any of your ornithological correspondents 

 can throw any light on the matter. The bird figured 

 in company with this nondescript is an inhabitant 

 of northern latitudes ; but as it is a bird of passage, 

 with an extensive range, this does not prove that 

 the artist intended to intimate that his Dodo was 

 also a northern bird, though it must have probably 

 been an inhabitant of a^much cooler climate than 

 his congener of the Isle of Bourbon. 



Hartley Lodge, Parkstern. Wm. W. Coker." 



The drawing of the two birds was sent to Mr. 

 Gould, the ornithologist, who made the following 

 remarks respecting it:— "The drawing which you 

 have sent for my inspection is not without interest. 

 The front figure is a good representation of the 

 Anser ruficoUis ; the other appears to me to have 

 been taken from an Albino, or white variety of the 

 Dodo. Now, as everything pertaining to t his extinct 

 bird is regarded with great interest, I think it de- 

 sirable that a drawing of the same size should be 

 published in the Illustrated London News. The 

 Anser doubtless sometimes visits Persia; but I 

 should suppose that the artist had made his sketch 

 of the Dod<? from a Mauritius or Bourbon specimen, 

 for we have no evidence that this bird was ever 

 found elsewhere." 



I have lately had an opportunity of examining the 

 original drawing alluded to, and possess a photo- 

 graph of it. It is most carefully and minutely 

 drawn, and coloured in body colours. Besides the 

 two birds which have been mentioned, the drawing 

 contains figures of six others, amongst which are 

 the Tufted Duck {Fuligula cristuta), a Spoonbill, 

 and a Merganser. To me they are evidently drawn 

 from life, as all are in most life-like attitudes. In 

 the left-hand corner of the drawing is the artist's 

 monogram, " P. W.," which a friend has ascertained 

 to be that of Pierre Witthoos, who died at Amster- 

 dam in 1693. The question arises, did the artist 

 make his drawing in Persia as Mr. Coker's friend 

 supposes, or was it not more likely to have been 

 made by Witthoos from menagerie specimens in 

 Holland? It seems undoubted that living specimens 

 of the Dodo were taken to Holland by the Dutch 

 navigators, and there is every reason to believe that 

 the oil painting in the British Museum was painted 

 from life. Why not the drawing of the White Dodo 

 in question ? As Mr. Gould remarks, it is a sub- 

 ject of much interest, and makes us long to know 

 something more of the mysterious bird than a mere 

 glance at its portrait. W. J. Steuland. 



