DODOS. 323 



Sub-Family V. 



THE DODOS. DIDIN^. 



General Characteristics.— Bill longer than the head, with the basal portion, for 

 two-thirds of its length, covered by a membrane, and the apical part corneous and 

 vaulted, with the tip hooked and acute, the tip of the lower mandible overlapped by 

 that of the upper mandible, and the gonys short and curved upwards ; the nostrils 

 placed in the fore part of the membranous portion of the bill, and near the lateral 

 margm, with the opening exposed ; the wings and tail imperfect ; the tarsi short, 

 robust, and covered with small irregular scales ; the toes moderate, the fore ones 

 free at their base, and the lateral ones equal, the hind toe long and strong. 



The Dodo {Didits inepliis), the extinct representative of this sub-family, 

 formerly inhabited the island of Mauritius : it is supposed to have lived in the 

 dense forests of palms that once covered the island, wandering from tree to 

 tree, tearing with its powerful beak the fruits which strewed the ground, enjoy- 

 ing tranquillity and abundance till the arrival of man destroyed the balance of 

 animal life and put a term to its existence. The nest is stated by old voyagers 

 to have been made of herbs and grass, heaped together in the depth of the 

 forest; and the female is said to have laid but one egg. Of this bird Bontius 

 gives the following description: "The dronte, or dod-aers, is, for bigness, of 

 mean size between an ostrich and a turkey, from which it partly differs in shape, 

 and partly agrees with them, especially with the African ostriches, if you con- 

 sider the rump, quills, and feathers ; so that it was like a pigmy amongst them, 

 if you regard the shortness of its legs. It hath a great ill-favoured head, covered 

 with a membrane resembling a hood, great black eyes, a bending, prominent, 

 fat neck, an extraordinary long, strong, bluish-white bill ; only the ends of each 

 mandible are of a different colour ; that of the upper, black ; that of the nether, 

 yellowish: both sharp-pointed and crooked. Its gape huge wide, as being 

 naturally very voracious. Its body is fat and round, covered with soft grey 

 feathers, after the manner of an ostrich's ; in each side, instead of hard wing- 

 feathers or quills, it is furnished with small, soft-feathered wings of a yellowish 

 ash-colour ; and behind the rump, instead of a tail, is adorned with fine, small, 

 curved feathers of the same colour. It hath yellow legs, thick, but very short ; 

 four toes on each foot, solid, long, as it were scaly, armed with strong black 

 claws." 



" It is a slow-paced and stupid bird, and which easily becomes a prey to its 

 pursuers. The flesh, especially of the breast, is fat, esculent, and so copious, 

 that three or four dodos will sometimes suffice to fill one hundred seamen's 

 bellies. If they be old or not well boiled, they are of difficult concoction, and 

 are salted and stored up for provision and victuah There are found in their 

 stomachs stones of an ash-colour of divers figures and magnitudes: yet not 

 bred there, as the common people and seamen fancy, but swallowed by the 

 bird, as though, by this mark also. Nature would manifest that these fowls are 

 of the ostrich kind, in that they swallow any hard things, though they do not 

 digest them." 



This singular bird, therefore, was an inhabitant of the island of the ]\lauritius 

 at the time of its discovery in the year 15 98, and was subsequently brought 

 alive to Europe, on several occasions, by the Dutch navigators. Its external 



■M—2 



