324 



PIGEONS. 



appearance is portrayed in a few pictures, into which its unwieldy form was 

 fortunately introduced by the Dutch painters at the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century. The only parts of its structure still to be found in Europe 

 consist of two heads, a foot, a few feathers, and some of its bones, which are 

 scattered about in various museums in En;4land and on the continent. From 

 the pictures above mentioned, and the descriptions of the early voyagers, it 

 appears that the dodo was a bulky and heavy bird, larger than a swan, and 

 weighing sometimes as much as fifty pounds; it had a long and strong bill, 

 with the basal portion of the upper mandible depressed and membranous ; the 

 apical part of this mandible was strong, horny, much arched, hooked, and 



Tig 164— The Dodo (^Didus iiuptus) 



acute, giving the organ so much resemblance to that of a vulture, that the dodo 

 was at one time regarded as allied to those birds of prey. The nostrils were 

 placed in the sides of the basal part of the upper mandible ; and in all respects 

 the structure of the upper bill presents so great a similarity to that occurring 

 in the didunculus, that, on the discovery of the latter bird, the resemblance 

 could not be overlooked. The feet of the dodo were short and exceedingly 

 stout, and although presenting a certain resemblance to those of a pigeon, 

 indicated clearly enough that their possessor was a strictly terrestrial bird. 

 Indeed, its wings being very short, and furnished only with soft decomposed 

 feathers, like the well-known ostrich plumes, were quite incapable of raising it 

 from the ground. The body of the dodo seems to have terminated in a rounded 

 extremity, and to have been destitute of true tail-feathers ; but a tuft of plumes, 

 similar to those of the wings, existed low down on its back, and probably repre- 

 sented the tail-coverts. The plumage was blackish, with the light feathers of 

 the wings and so-called tail ])alc fawn-colour. That the occurrence of a large 

 and sluggish bird like the dodo upon the distant island of the Mauritius must 



