ANIMALS EXTINCT IN THE HISTORIC PERIOD. 



339 



When Pedro de Mascarenhas discovered the islands of the Indian 

 Ocean, in the early years of the sixteenth century, Mauritius, Rodri- 

 guez, Bourbon, formerly St. Appolonia, and now Reunion Island, which 

 were called, after the name of the Portuguese navigator, the Mascarene 

 Islands, these regions, covered with rich vegetation, were inhabited 

 by birds in great numbers. Besides species belonging to groups repre- 

 sented in other parts of the world, as parrots, sparrows, pigeons, ducks, 

 there were living some species which excited the astonishment of the 

 navigators by their really extraordinary aj^pearance. There were the 

 dronte^ or dodo, and the hermit-bird, which have furnished modern 

 authors the theme for numberless writings. Naturalists long cher- 

 ished the hope of finding again, at some point of the globe, those 

 strange creatures which had no near relationship with any other living 

 being ; but the most zealous research has been fruitless, and the hope 

 is abandoned. Many efibrts have been made, with the aid of some re- 

 mains, and a few imperfect sketches, to reconstruct those strange, ex- 

 tinct birds in a scientific way, without any early satisfactory results. 

 Lately, the bones of these vanished species, gathered in tolerably large 

 quantities, either at Rodriguez, or from a marsh in Mauritius, have 

 enabled us to gain clearer ideas of them. 



The dodo exceeded the swan in size, and presented the most ex- 

 traordinary appearance. It had a massive body, supported on thick, 

 short legs, like pillars, a swollen neck, a round head set off by a fringe 

 of feathers brought forward over the face like a hood, great black 

 eyes, ringed with w^hite, and a huge bill, of which the two mandibles, 

 rounded and broad at the end, and terminating in a point in the other 

 direction, have been compared to two spoons laid with the hollow of 

 the bowls against each other. The dodo had wings ; but these wings, 

 quite small, mere elements of wings, could be used for nothing ; it 

 had a tail, but the tail was reduced to a sort of tuft, made of four or 

 five curly feathers. Then it had silky plumage of a gray color, lighter 

 on the lower parts than on the back, and shaded with yellow on the 

 wings and tail. The animal, absolutely ugly, clumsy, and stupid in 

 its look, inspired repugnance. Buffon, who spoke of it as we do, from 

 sketches and descriptions given by ancient observers, says, that it 

 would be taken for a turtle mufiied in a bird's skin. 



The earliest notices of the natural productions of Mauritius Island 

 come to us from a voyage made by the Dutch, in 1598. Cornelius 

 Van Neck, the leader of the expedition, finding the island uninhabited, 

 took possession of it, and traveled through the country with his com- 

 panions, and in the account of his voyage he notes the most remark- 

 able animals and vegetables that were met with on the island. He 

 speaks of the dodo, described as a Wcclgvogel, "a disgusting bird." 

 The animal, represented by a rather coarsely-executed picture, is de- 

 scribed in simple terms, of which this passage will give some idea. 

 " It is a bird," the narrator says, " which we called the disgusting 



