Mar. 30. 1850.] 
easy” conversation, I am led to think it a cant 
term. At any rate, I shall be glad to be informed 
of its origin, —if it be not lost in the mists of sol- 
dierly antiquity. CANTAB. 
REPLIES. 
THE DODO. 
Mr. Strickland has justly observed that this 
subject “belongs rather to human history than to 
pure zoology.” Though I have not seen Mr. 
Strickiand’s book, I venture to offer him a few 
suggestions, not as answers to his questions, but as 
slicht aids toward the resolution of some of them. 
Qu.1. There can be no doubt about the dis- 
covery of Mauritius and Bourbon by the Portu- 
guese; and if not by a Mascarhenas, that the 
islands were first so named in honour of some 
member of that illustrious family, many of whom 
make a conspicuous figure in the Decads of the 
Portuguese Livy. [expected to have found some 
notice of the discovery in the very curious little 
volume of Antonio Galvad, printed in 1563, under 
the following title: — Tratado dos Descobrimentos 
Antigos, e Modernos feitos até a Era de 1550; but 
I merely find a vague notice of several nameless 
islands —“ alguma [heta sem gente: onde diz que 
tomarao agoa e ienha” —and that, in 1517, Jorge 
Mascarenhas was despatched by sea to the coast 
of China. This is the more provoking, as, in 
general, Galvao is very circumstantial about the 
discoveries of his countrymen. 
Qu. 5. The article in Rees’s Cyclopedia is a 
pretty specimen of the manner in which such 
things are sometimes concocted, as the following 
extracts will show : — 
« Of Bats they have as big as Hennes abont Java and 
the neighbour islands. Clusius bought one of the 
Hollanders, which they brought from the Island of 
Swannes (Ilha do Cisne), newly styled by them Mau- 
rice Island. It was about a foot from head to taile, 
above a foot about; the wings one and twenty inches 
long, nine broad; the claw, whereby it hung on the 
trees, was two inches,” &c. “ Here also they found a 
Fowle, which they called Walgh-vogel, of the bigness of 
a Swanne, and most deformed shape” ( Purchas his Pil- 
grimage, 1616, p. 642.) 
And afterward, speaking of the island of Ma- 
dura, he says, — 
“ Tn these partes are Battes as big as Hennes, which 
the people roast and eat.” 
In the Lettres édifiantes (edit. 1781, t.xiii. p. 302.) 
is a letter from Pére Brown to Madame de Bena- 
mont concerning the Isle of Bourbon, which he 
calls “PIsle de Mascarin,” erroneously saying it 
was discovered by the Dutch about sixty years 
since. (The letter is supposed to have been 
written about the commencement of the eighteenth 
century.) Ie then relates how it was peopled by 
French fugitives from Madagascar, when the mas- 
sacre there took place on account of the conduct 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
353 
of the French king and his court. In describing 
its productions, he says, — 
“ Vers l’est de cette Isle il y a une petite plaine au 
haut d'une montagne, qu’on appelle la Plaine des Caffres, 
ou Von trouve un gros oiseau bleu, dont la couleur est 
fort éclatante. Il ressemble a un pigeon ramier; il 
vole rarement, et toujours en rasant la terre, mais il 
marche avee une vitesse surprenante ; les habitans ne 
lui ont point encore donné d’autre nom que celui d’oi- 
seau bien; sa chair est assez bonne et se conserve long- 
temps.” 
Not a word, however, about the Dodo, which, 
had it then existed there, would certainly have 
been noticed by the observant Jesuit. But now 
for the bat :— 
“ La chauve-souris est ici de la grosseur d’une poule. 
Cet oiseau ne vit que de fruits et de grains, et c’est un 
mets fort commun dans le pays. J’avois de la répug- 
nance a suivre l’exemple de ceux qui en mangeoit ; 
mais en ayant gouté par surprise, j’en trouvai la chair 
fort délicate. On peut dire que cet animal, qu‘on ab- 
horre naturellement, n’a rien de mauvais que la 
figure.” 
The Italics are mine; but they serve to show 
how the confusion has arisen. The writer speaks 
of the almost entire extinction of the land Turtles, 
which were formerly abundant; and says, that the 
island was also well stocked with goats and wild 
hogs, but for some time they had retreated to the 
mountains, where no one dared venture to wage 
war upon them. 
Again, in the Voyage de [Arabie Heureuse par 
l’ Océan Oriental et le Détroit de la Mer rouge, dans 
les Années 1708-10 (Paris, 1716, 12mo.), the ves- 
sels visit both Mauritius and Bourbon, and some 
account of the then state of both islands is given. 
At the Mauritius, one of the captains relates that, 
foraging for provisions, — 
« Toute notre chasse se borna a quelques pigeons 
rougeatres, que nous tudimes, et qui se laissent telle- 
ment approcher, qu’on peut les assommer a coup de 
pierres. Je tuai aussi deux chauve-souris d’une espéce 
particuliére, de couleur violette, avec de petites taches 
jaunes, ayant une espéce de crampon aux ailes, par ot 
cet viseau se prend aux branches des arbres, et wn bec de 
perroquet. Les Hollandois disent qu’elles sont bonnes 
a manger; et qu’en certaine saison, elles valent bien 
nos bécasses.” 
At Bourbon, he says, — 
“On y voit grands nombres d’oisean bleu qui se 
nichent dans les herbes et dans les fougéres.” 
This was in the year 1710. There were then, 
he says, not more than forty Dutch settlers on the 
Island of Mauritius, and they were daily hoping 
and expecting to be transferred to Batavia. As 
he did not remain long at the Isle of Bourbon, the 
editor (La Roque) subjoins a relation furnished 
on the authority of M. de Vilers, who had been 
governor there for the India Company, in which 
it is said, — 
