191 9'] Reunion or White Dodo. 79 



Female. The horny sheath of the upper mandible was not 

 hooked, but obtuse, sometimes ending in a blunt point, 

 sometimes rounded ; it was greyish or light fawn-coloured, 

 the rest of the bill being greyish or greenish ; the whole 

 body cloth-white, the wings golden yellow. The tail con- 

 sisted of at least six white rectrices which resemble in shape 

 those of a Silver Pheasant. 



The picture here reproduced (PI, IL) and a second by the 

 same artist, now in Holland, were drawn from a living bird 

 brought to Amsterdam about 1670. The first mention of this 

 picture was made by the late Professor Alfred Newton in the 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. vi. 1867, pp. 373- 

 376, pi. 62, where a portion of the picture is reproduced. 

 Tlie painter, Pieter Witthoos, was a well-known Dutch artist 

 of birds and landscapes. The other birds in the picture are 

 a Red-breasted Goose, a female Red-breasted Merganser, a 

 Black Guillemot, a Tufted Duck, a Golden-eye, a female 

 Widgeon, and a Spoonbill. There is a companion picture 

 by the same artist depicting a Sheldrake, a Shoveler, a 

 female Tufted Duck, a Smew, a young Great Northern 

 Diver, a Widgeon, and two ill-defined Ducks. 



These pictures were formerly in the possession of Mr. C. 

 Dare of Clattenford, Isle of Wight, and for many years were 

 erroneously supposed to have been deposited in Carisbrooke 

 Castle ; they were purchased by me from Mr. Dare's son in 

 the summer of 1918. 



The two other pictures are by Pieter Holsteyn and were 

 drawn from the same bird, and are in Holland. All four 

 paintings were made between 1670 and 1693. 



The White Dodo became extinct between the years 1735 

 and 1801, for between 1735 and 1746 a living one reached 

 France, sent by M. de la Bourdonnaye, the Governor of the 

 Mascarene Islands at that time; while when Monsieur Bory 

 de St. Vincent made his scientific survey of the islands in 

 1801 the bird no longer existed. 



