OSTRICHES. 



325 



have been a welcome phenomenon to the Dutch sailors who discovered it, 

 cannot admit of doubt ; and we can easily understand that, in their subsequent 

 voyages to the East Indies, they were only too glad to avail themselves of the 

 abundant supply of fresh meat afforded by the dodos, after being restricted for 

 months to the salt provisions of their ships' stores. It is, however, remarkable 

 that the only relics of so singular a bird, which was certainly living two cen- 

 turies ago, and of which specimens were undoubtedly imported into Europe, 

 should be of so fragmentary a description. This is still more strikingly the 

 case with two other species allied to the dodo, of which only a few bones are 

 known to exist : these are — 



The Solitaire {Didus solitariiis), described by a French sailor named 

 Leguat, which attained a weight of forty-five pounds ; and — 



The Nazarene {Didus Nazaremis), described by another Frenchman 

 named Frangois Coache. It is said to have had only three toes. Tne bones 

 which are supposed to have belonged to this bird indicate that it must have 

 •been twice as large as the dodo. 



Of the former of these birds (the Solitaire) Leguat gives an amusing account: 

 " The feathers of the males are of a brown grey colour ; the feet and beak like 

 a turkey's, but a little more crooked. They have scarce any tail, but their hind 

 part, covered with feathers, is roundish, like the crupper of a horse ; they are 

 taller than turkeys. They never fly, their wings are too little to support the 

 weight of their bodies, they serve only to beat themselves and flutter when they 

 call one another. They will whirl about for twenty or thirty times together on 

 the same side during the space of four or five minutes, the motion of their 

 wings makes then a noise very like that of a rattle, and one may hear it two 

 hundred paces off. The bone of their wing grows greater towards the extremity, 

 and forms a little round mass under the feathers as big as a musket-ball : that 

 and its beak are the chief defence of this bird. 'Tis very hard to catch it in 

 the woods, but easy in open places, because we can run faster than they, and 

 sometimes we approach them without much trouble. From March to Septem- 

 ber they are extremely fat and taste admirably well, especially while they are 

 young. Some of the males weigh forty-five pounds. The females are wonder- 

 fully beautiful — some fair, some brown." 



ORDER V. 



CURSORES. 



IT has long been the wish of ornithologists to unite as a distinct 

 Order, and under a common designation, certain birds that 

 are strictly terrestrial in their habits, and are entirely deprived of 

 the power of flying. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the high au- 

 thority of those naturalists who have endeavoured to establish such 

 an Order, it is obvious, from the uncertainty of its limits as defined 



