318 



Mr. W. L. Sclater on the 



from St. Lawrence. A Question may be demanded how 

 they should be here and not elsewhere, being so far from 

 other land and can neither fly nor swim, whether by mixture 

 o£ kind producing strange and monstrous forms, or the 

 nature of the climate, air and earth in altering the first 

 shapes in long time, or how ? 



Text-fiKure 5. 



Peter Mundy's "Mauritius Hen," copied from the original drawing. 



" Other land fowl here of divers sorts, as russet Parrots, 

 large turtle Doves, and many other various in form, colour 

 and bigness ; among the rest one as great as a blackbird 

 with a yellow Bill, and a little Bird like a Linnet, with 

 others who would come flocking about us, as wondring at 

 us, so that we struck them down with Sticks in our hands." 



Of the Dodo much has been written and published. It 

 probably became extinct about 1680. With regard to the 

 " Mauritius Hen,'^ of which Mundy gives an outline drawing 

 (here reproduced), there can be no doubt that it is the now 

 extinct bird known as Jphanaptery.v broekii (Schl.). 



But little is known of this bird through contemporary 

 writers. It was first mentioned by Sir Thomas Herhert 

 (1606-1682) who travelled to the east in the suite of 

 Sir Dodmore Cotton, accredited Ambassador to the King 



