THE DODO. 367 
does not yield without an effort, using its feet, which are armed with 
long and sharp claws, as weapons of defence. It builds a very rough 
nest among the roots of marsh-growing shrubs, and lays a single egg, 
excessively large in proportion to the size of the producer. The 
natives call the bird Azwz. They used at one time to hunt them 
very perseveringly, as much for their flesh as for their feathers, which 
they used in making mats. Now they have renounced this work, 
Fig. 146.—Kiwi-kiwi, or Apteryx. 
the profits not compensating for the fatigue which it entailed. Day 
by day it is becoming more rare and difficult to procure. The 
Zoological Society of London has three specimens. ' 
EXTINCT BREVIPENNA. 
The order of the Brevifenne may be held to embrace some Birds 
which have now disappeared from the surface of the globe, but 
which are supposed to be contemporaneous with Man. ‘The remains 
which are met with in quite modern alluvium scarcely admit of any 
doubt in this respect. 
In the first rank of extinct birds we may place the Dodo (Didus 
ineépius, Fig. 147), which was indigenous to the Mauritius and the 
