82 



Notice of some Bones which appear to hare belonged to. 

 the Dodo, a species of Bird extinct within the last 

 Two Centuries. Read at the Academy of Sciences, 

 12 tli July 1630, by Bauon Cuviek. 



[From Die Edinburgh Journal of Natural nud Geographical Science.] 



The Dutch Navigators who, in 1593, discovered the Mauritius, 

 saw there a bird of great size and remarkable form ; the body 

 was gross and unweildy, and covered with soft grayish feathers ; 

 the wings were small, and provided with feathers resembling 

 those of the ostrich, instead of quills; the rump was also 

 furnished with curly feathers of a yellowish gray colour; the 

 feet were short and strong; the toes four in number, one of 

 which was placed posteriorly. The head was heavy, covered 

 anteriorly with down, and at the superior and posterior parts 

 with short feathers, which formed a sort of hood,— an appear- 

 ance from which the bird has since received the inappropriate 

 name of Cygnus cucullatus. The beak was large, strong, 

 deeply grooved, swelled out, and curved at the point. In 1605, 

 Clusius published a figure of this bird, from a drawing made by 

 a person who accompanied the vessels which discovered the 

 Mauritius. From the description which he has added to this 

 figure, it appears that the stomach always contained stones, 

 like the gizzard of the Gallina. The flesh was blackish, fat, 

 and very thick on the breast, so that a single bird was suffi- 

 cient food for twenty-five men; it had a very bad taste, was 

 hard in old birds, and of a disagreeable smell. Nuremberg, 

 after Clusius, described this animal, Bontius also afterwards 

 pave an account of it, with a better figure than Clusius'. His- 

 plate was engraven after an oil painting, which subsequently 

 passed into the possession of Sir Hans Sloane, and then of 

 Edwards, who bequeathed it to the British Museum, where it 

 is still perserved. 



The Dutcli gave this bird the names of Dronte and Dodars, 

 in reference to its weight. Of Dodars other naturalists have 

 made Dodo, and Linnaeus formed the name Didus, which he 

 applied to a genus composed of three species, Didus ineptus, 

 D. solitarius, and D. nazarenus. These three species were 

 established on bad descriptions of the same bird, and every 

 thing leads to the opinion, that the Isles of France and Bour- 

 bon have never possessed more than the single species lirst de- 

 scribed by Clusius, 



