566 Mr. Duncan on the Dodo* 



The continuer of Shaw's Zoology thus notices the Dodo, toI. ii. 

 part 2. '^ The Dodo of Edwards appears to have existed only in 

 the imagination of that artist, or the species has been utterly 

 extirpated since his time, which is scarcely probable. Its beak is 

 said to be deposited in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and a 

 foot in the collection in the British Museum. The former appears 

 rather to belong to some unknown species of Albatros than to a 

 bird of this order, and the latter to another unknown bird ; but 

 upon what authority it has been stated to belong to the Dodo, I 

 am at a loss to determine. A painting by Edwards still exists in 

 the British Museum." 



This hasty judgment is fully refuted by the above mentioned 

 authorities, especially by the existing head, and the exact resem- 

 blance of the leg at Oxford to that in London, 



Finally, having applied, through the medium of a friend, to 

 C. Telfair, Esq. of Port Louis, in the Mauritius, a naturalist of 

 great research, for any information he could furnish or procure 

 relating to the former existence of the Dodo in that island, I ob- 

 tained only the following partly negative statement. 



That there is a very general impression among the inhabitants 

 that the Dodo did exist at Rodriguez, as well as in the Mauritius 

 itself; but that the oldest inhabitants have never seen it, nor has 

 the bird or any part of it been preserved in any museum or collec- 

 tion formed in those islands, although some distinguished amateurs 

 in natural history have passed their lives on them, and formed 

 extensive collections. And with regard to the supposed existence 

 of the Dodo in Madagascar, although Mr. Telfair had not received, 

 at the time of his writing to Europe, a reply to a letter on the 

 subject which he had addressed to a gentleman resident on that 

 island, yet he stated that he had not any great expectations from 

 that quarter ; as the Dodo was not mentioned in any of his volu- 

 minous manuscripts respecting that island, which contained the 

 travels of persons who had traversed Madagascar in all directions, 

 many of them having no other object in view than that of extend- 

 ing the bounds of natural history. 



J. S. D. 



