i6o DODO 



of a Dodo, a great heavy bird that cannot fly ; it is a Bird of the 

 Maiiricius Island." This is supposed to have subsequently passed 

 into the possession of the Royal Society. At all events such a 

 specimen is included in Grew's list of their treasures which was 

 published in 1681, and it was afterwards transferred to the British 

 Museum, where it still reposes. As may be seen, it is a left foot, 

 without the integuments, but it diifers sufficiently in size from 

 the Oxford specimen to forbid its having been part of the same 

 individual. In 1666 Olearius brought out the Gottm-ffisches Kunst 

 Karnmer, wherein he describes the head of a Walglivogel, which some 

 sixty years later was removed to the Museum at Copenhagen, and 

 is now preserved there, having been the means of first leading 

 zoologists, under the guidance of the late Prof. Johannes Theodor 

 Reinhardt in 1843, to recognize the true affinities of the bird. 



Little more remains to be told. For brevity's sake we have 

 passed over all but the principal narratives of voyagers or other 

 notices of the bird. A compendious bibliography, up to the year 

 1848, Avill be found in Strickland's classical work,^ and the list Avas 

 continued by Von Frauenfeld - for twenty years later. The last 

 evidence we have of the Dodo's existence is fui'nished by a journal 

 kept by Benj. Harry, and noAv in the British Museum (MSS. Addit. 

 3668, 11. D). This shews its sm^vival till 1681, but the Avriter's 

 sole remark upon it is that its " fflesh is very hard." The successive 

 occupation of the island by different masters seems to have destroyed 

 every tradition relating to the bird, and douljts began to arise 

 whether such a creature had ever existed. Duncan, in 1828, proved 

 how ill-founded these doubts were, and some ten years later 

 Broderip with much diligence collected all the available evidence 

 into an admirable essay, which in its turn was succeeded by Strick- 

 land's monograph just mentioned. But in the meanwhile little 

 was done towards obtaining any material advance in our knowledge, 

 Reinhardt's determination of its affinity to the Pigeons (Columlm) 

 excepted ; and it was hardly until the late Mr. George Clai-k's dis- 

 covery in 1865 (Ibis, 1866, pp. 141-146) of a large number of Dodos' 

 remains, that zoologists generally Avere prepared to accept that 

 affinity Avithout question. The examination of bone after bone by 

 Sir R. Owen {Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. p. 49) and others confirmed the 

 judgment of the Danish naturalist, and no difterent vieAv can 

 noAv be successfully maintained. In 1889, at the instance of M. 

 Sauzier, researches on the scene of Mr. Clark's successes Avere reneAved, 

 this time by the Mauritian Government, and a vast number of Dodos' 

 and other bones Avere recovered from the Mare aux Songes. Some 



1 The Dodo and its Kiiidred. By H. E. Strickland and A. G. Melville. 

 London : 1848, 4to. 



- Ncio aiifgcfandcm Ahbiklung dcs Bronte, u. s. w. Vou Georg Ritter A'on 

 Fraueufeld. Wien : 1868, fol. 



