2i6 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



palatable, but probably also because better and 

 more toothsome meat could be obtained on the 

 island — Doves, tortoises, turtles, and fish, which in 

 those days abounded. The poor Dodo, however, 

 was never allowed to remain in peace for long, and 

 the next vessel to reach the island decimated the 

 unfortunate species. This was in 1601, ^Yhen a 

 ship commanded by Van West Zannen touched at 

 Mauritius, his crew, he tells us, capturing twenty- 

 four Dodos one day and twenty on another, " so 

 large and heavy that they could not eat anj- tM'o 

 of them for dinner." Van Zannen sailed away 

 with his larder well stocked with salted Dodos : 

 and in ensuing years other ships appeared from 

 time to time to seek supplies of fresh meat ; and 

 in less than a hundred years after its discovery 

 the wonderful bird had ceased to exist. 



But little definite seems known respecting the 

 habits and economy of the Dodo. That it was a 

 terrestrial species there can be no doubt. Francois 

 Cauche, who made a lengthy stay upon the island 

 in 1638, furnished more or less trustworthy par- 

 ticulars of the bird, describing its cry as like that 

 of a Gosling, and its single white egg, " the size of 

 a halfpenny roll," laid on a heap of herbs in the 

 forest. It is matter for surprise that so few 



