DODO. — Dklv^ ineptvs. 



Other travellers, such as Leguat and De Bry, agree with Bontius in his description of 

 the bird, and coincide in his opinion of the excellence of its flesh ; hut one writer, Sir 

 T. Herbert, who visited tlie Mauritius about 1625, differs greatly in his estimation of the 

 value of the Dodo as an article of food. In his book of travels, which is perhaps 

 the quaintest and raciest to be found among siich literature, he speaks as follows of 

 this bird : — 



" The Dodo, a bird the Dutch call Walghvogel, or Dod Eersen ; her body is round and 

 fat, which occasions the slow pace, or that her corpulencie, and so great as few of them 

 weigh less tlian iifty pound : meat it is with some, but better to the eye than stomach, 

 such as only a strong appetite can vanquish. ... It is of a melancholy visage, as sensible 

 of nature's injury in framing so massie a body to be directed by complimental wings, 

 such, indeed, as are unable tohoise her from the ground, serving only to rank her among 

 liirds. Her traine, three small plumes, shoii and improportionable, her legs suiting to 

 her body, her pounces sharpe, lier appetite strong and gi'eedy. Stones and iron are 

 digested ; whicli description will better be conceived in her representation." 



" So plentiful were the Dodos at one time, and so easily were they killed, that the 

 sailors were in the habit of slaying the birds merely for the sake of the stones in their 

 stomachs, these being found very eiScacious in shai-pening their clasp-knives. The nest of 

 the Dodo was a mere heap of i'allen leaves gathered together on the ground, and the bird 

 laid Init one large egg. The weight of one full-grown Dodo was said to be between fovty 

 and fifty jmunds. The colour of the plumage was a greyish lirown in the adult males, 

 not unlike that of the ostrich, wliilc the plumage of the females was of a paler hue. 



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