160 DODO 
of a Dodo, a great heavy bird that cannot fly; it is a Bird of the 
Mauricius Island.” This is supposed to have subsequently passed 
into the possession of the Royal Society. At all events such a 
specimen is included in Grew’s list of their treasures which was 
published in 1681, and it was afterwards transferred to the British 
Museum, where it still reposes. As may be seen, it is a left foot, 
without the integuments, but it differs sufficiently in size from 
the Oxford specimen to forbid its having been part of the same 
individual. In 1666 Olearius brought out the Gottorffisches Kunst 
Kammer, wherein he describes the head of a Walghvogel, which some 
sixty years later was removed to the Museum at Copenhagen, and 
is now preserved there, having been the means of first leading 
zoologists, under the guidance of the late Prof. Johannes Theodor 
Reinhardt in 1843, to recognize the true affinities of the bird. 
Little more remains to be told. For brevity’s sake we have 
passed over all but the principal narratives of voyagers or other 
notices of the bird. A compendious bibliography, up to the year 
1848, will be found in Strickland’s classical work,! and the list was 
continued by Von Frauenfeld? for twenty years later. The last 
evidence we have of the Dodo’s existence is furnished by a journal 
kept by Benj. Harry, and now in the British Museum (M/SS. Addit. 
3668, 11. D). This shews its survival till 1681, but the writer’s 
sole remark upon it is that its “flesh is very hard.” Thesuccessive 
occupation of the island by different masters seems to have destroyed 
every tradition relating to the bird, and doubts began to arise 
whether such a creature had ever existed. Duncan, in 1828, proved 
how ill-founded these doubts were, and some ten~ years later 
Broderip with much diligence collected all the available evidence 
into an admirable essay, which in its turn was succeeded by Strick- 
land’s monograph just mentioned. But in the meanwhile little 
was done towards obtaining any material advance in our knowledge, 
Reinhardt’s determination of its affinity to the Pigeons (Colwmbx) 
excepted ; and it was hardly until the late Mr. George Clark’s dis- 
covery in 1865 (bis, 1866, pp. 141-146) of a large number of Dodos’ 
remains, that zoologists generally were prepared to accept that 
affinity without question. The examination of bone after bone by 
Sir R. Owen (Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. p. 49) and others confirmed the 
judgment of the Danish naturalist, and no different view can 
now be successfully maintained. In 1889, at the instance of M. 
Sauzier, researches on the scene of Mr. Clark’s successes were renewed, 
this time by the Mauritian Government, and a vast number of Dodos’ 
and other bones were recovered from the Mare aux Songes. Some 
1 The Dodo and its Kindred. By H. E. Strickland and A. G. Melville. 
London : 1848, 4to. 
2 New aufgefundem Abbildung des Dronte, u. s. Ww. Von Georg Ritter von 
Fraucnfeld. Wien: 1868, fol. 
