480 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



and then goes on to tell of its being attracted by a piece of red 

 cloth and caught by the hand, just as Cauche says of his " Poules 

 rouges." It would appear from this that in Hoffmann's time 

 one common name of the Dodo had been transferred to another 

 species of bird, in accordance with that odd process of substitu- 

 tion which has obtained in so many countries, where the rightful 

 owner expiring bequeaths (as it were) its titles to a survivor. 



But of the " Poule rouge '^ of Mauritius, just mentioned, 

 there is more to be said. In a most beautiful and elaborate 

 publication* Herr Georg von Frauenfeld has just announced a 

 most interesting discovery made in the private library of the 

 late Empei'or Francis of Austria. In this library were two 

 volumes containing a series of pictures of various animals, 

 painted in oil on parchment and of considerable antiquity f. 

 One of these pictures represents what is evidently a Dodo, the 

 other a bird of equal or even greater interest. With the limited 

 space at our disposal we cannot give in detail the different steps 

 of the author's argument ; it will be sufficient to say that he 

 almost conclusively fixes these paintings on a certain Dutch 

 painter, Hoefnagel by name, who was born at Amsterdam in 

 1545 or 1546, and shows the extreme probability of most of them 

 having been drawn from living subjects in the vivarium of the 

 then Emperor Rudolf II. The Dodo-picture differs from all 

 others that we know of, and is so far very satisfactory, since it 

 acquits the artist, even if the early period at which he flourished 

 did not preclude it, from the charge (which has been made against 

 some others) of being a copyist. It undoubtedly represents a 

 bird whose " visage," in the words of Herbert, " darts forth 

 melancholy;" and no wonder it may, if the author's supposition 



* Neu aufgefundene Abbildung des Dronte und eines zweiten kurz- 

 fliigeligen Vogels, wahrscheinlich des Poule rouge au bee de Becasse der 

 Maskarenen in der Privatbibliothek S. M. des verstorbenen Kaisers Franz. 

 Erl'autert von Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld. Mit4Tafeln. Wien ; 

 1868. Fol., pp. 17. 



t Our friend Mr. J. W. Clark informs us that very recently he had the 

 pleasure, thanks to Herr von Frauenfeld's kindness, of inspecting these in- 

 teresting drawings, one of which he recognized as representing Chiromys 

 madagascariensis, the Aye-Aye ! 



