260 Mr. H. E. Strickland on the Dodo and its Kindred. 



tekoe {see 'Dodo and its Kindred/ p. 63), but the description is 

 evidently taken from Clusius, Exotica, cap. iv. The author ju- 

 diciously points out the discrepancy between the colour of the 

 wings as given by Clusius and Bontius, which is explained by 

 Dr. Hamel {' Der Dodo/ &c. pp. 25, 34) to have arisen from a 

 mistranslation of the original Dutch of Van Neck. 



It is remarkable that although Holme takes his description 

 from the works of Clusius and Bontius, yet his figure is copied 

 from neither, but is taken from a third, and wholly independent, 

 source. This seems conclusive as to the actual existence of a 

 family bearing these arms ; for had they been Holme's ow^n in- 

 vention, he would naturally have copied the figure from one of 

 the two works which furnished him with the description. So 

 now to our author. 



" He beareth Sable a Dodo, or Dronte proper. By the name 

 of Dronte. This exotic bird doth equal a Sican in bigness, and 

 is of some authors termed Gallus Peregrinus and Sygnus Cu- 

 cullatus, a Hooded Swan ; yet it is of a far differrent shape. 

 For the head is great, covered (as it w^ere) with a certain mem- 

 brane, resembling a hood. The bill is thick, and long, yellow 

 next the head, the point black ; the upper chap is hooked at the 

 end, the lower chap had a blew spot between the yellow and 

 black. It is covered with thin short feathers, and wants wings : 

 in stead thereof it hath four or five loug black feathers ; that the 

 hinder pai*t of the body is round, flat, and fleshy, wherein for the 

 tail were four or five small curled feathers, twirled up together, 

 of an ash colour. The legs thick and short wdth long sharp 

 pointed toes, yellowish ; claws black. Thighs covered with black 

 feathers, the rest of the body grey. Yet Bontius, lib. 5. chap. 17. 

 in his History of India, describes it to have a great ill-favoured 

 head, covered with a membrane like a hood ; the bill bluish white, 

 the tips of the upper maudable black, the lower yellow, the body 

 is covered with soft grey feathers ; the soft feathered wings of a 

 yellowish ash colour ; legs yellowish, and both them and the toes 

 set with broad scales." 



5. Stones in the stomach of birds, indicative of frugivorous 

 habits, — In the 'Dodo and its Kindred,' p. 43, it is stated that 



