76 THE STORY OF BIRD-LIFE. 



for it was ordered to be destroyed. Fortunately 

 its head and right foot were preserved and these 

 now adorn the University Museum, together with 

 a picture by Eoelandt Savery. 



The extinction of the dodo is said to be due to 

 the importation of pigs which overran the island 

 and devoured its eggs and young. 



To get an idea of how greatly the wing has 

 degenerated it is necessary to compare it with its 

 leg or with the wing of some existing pigeon. 

 One can see at a glance how disproportionate 

 the one is to the other, and thus gain a standard 

 of measurement absolutely reliable. The dodo 

 was really a gigantic pigeon. So also was its 

 kinsman and near neighbour the solitaire. 



Strangely enough, although the name of the 

 solitaire is almost unknown outside scientific 

 circles, whilst that of the dodo is almost a house- 

 hold word, yet we know far more about the 

 former than the latter. We owe much of this 

 information to the traveller Leguat who published 

 an account of his travels in 1708. "Of all the 

 birds in the island," he says, " the most remark- 

 able is that which goes by the name of the 

 ' Solitary,' because 'tis very seldom seen in com- 

 pany. . . . The feathers of the males are of 

 a brown-grey colour ; the feet and beak are like 

 a turkey's but a little more crooked ; they have 

 scarce any tail, but their hindpart 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. . . . Though these birds will 

 sometimes very familiarly come up near enough 



