562 Mr. Duncan on the Dodo. 



breves pro tam crasso crura ; nam maximi sive medii ad unguem 

 usque longitudo binas uncias non admodum superabat, aliorum 

 duorum illi proximorura vix binas uncias aequabat, posterioris ses- 

 cunciam : omnium vero ungues crassi, duri, nigri, minus unci^ 

 longi, sed posterioris digiti longior reliquis, & unciam superans. 



Nautae huic avi nomen indebant suo idiomate Walgh-vogel^ hoc 

 est, nauseam movens avis, partim quod post diuturnam elixationem, 

 ejus caro non fieret tenerior, sed dura permaneret & difl&cilis con- 

 coctiouis (excepto ejus pectore & ventriculo, quae non contemnen- 

 di saporis esse comperiebant) partim quod multos turtures nancisci 

 poterant, quos delicatiores & ori magis gratos reperiebant. Istam 

 autem insulam Batavi appellabant Mauritii insulam a Principe 

 Mauritio, ante a Lusitanis Ilha do Cerne vel Cirne nuncupatam (ut 

 ante diximus) id est insulam Cyguaeum, forsitan ob conspectam in 

 ipsa jam commemoratam avem, quam cygnum esse existimassent." 



Some Years Travels into Africa^ Asia^ S^c. by Thomas Herbert^ 

 Esq. 1677. Fourth Edition. 



'' The Dodo comes first to our description, here, and in Dy- 

 garrois; (and no where else, that ever I could see or heare of, 

 is generated the Dodo.) (A Portuguize name it is, and has re- 

 ference to her simplenes,) a bird which for shape and rarenesse 

 might be called a Phaenix (wer't in Arabia ;) her body is round 

 and extreame fat, her slow pace begets that corpulencie ; few of 

 them weigh lesse than fifty pound : better to the eye than the 

 stomack : greasie appetites may perhaps commend them, but to 

 the indifferently curious nourishment, but prove offensive. Let's 

 take her picture : her visage darts forth melancholy, as sensible of 

 nature's injurie in framing so great and massie a body to be di- 

 rected by such small and complementall wings, as are unable to 

 hoise her from the ground, serving only to prove her a bird • 

 which otherwise might be doubted of : her head is variously drest, 

 the one halfe hooded with downy blackish feathers ; the other, 

 perfectly naked ; of a whitish hue, as if a transparent lawne had 

 covered it : her bill is very howked and bends downwards, the 

 thrill or breathing place is in the mid'st of it ; from which part to 

 the end, the colour is a light greene mixt with a pale yellow j her 



