THE DODO. 295 



internal bag, or pouch, connected with the windpipe, but 

 having no communication with the other air-cells. Its use is 

 not exactly known, but it has been ingeniously conjectured 

 that in a country like New Holland, parts of which are par- 

 ticularly exposed to sudden floods, the sandy plains in the 

 interior are inundated, and the Emus in seeking their food 

 amongst or attempting to escape from these marshes must be 

 often obliged to have recourse to swimming, which, considering 

 their weight, would be difficult were it not for the power of 

 filling this pouch with air, and thus keeping their heads and 

 necks above water. That this is correct we have good reason 

 for believing; for Captain Short, in the account of his ex- 

 pedition into the interior of Australia, mentions the fact of 

 two Emus swimming across the Murrumbidgee, in a part of 

 considerable width and rapidity, which they would never have 

 ventured to attempt, so peculiarly are they in body and limb 

 unfitted for swimming, without some internal capacity similar 

 to the above.* 



Of the last bird in this list, the Dodo, no particulars are 

 known. The following account of one exhibited in London is 

 the only instance, we believe, on record of its appearance as a 

 living species in modern times. We give it on the authority 

 of Sir Hanion L'Estrange, quoted in Sir Thomas Browne's 

 Works, vol. ii. p. 174 : 



"About 1638, as I walked London streets, I sawe the picture of a 

 strange fowle hang out, and myselfe, with one or two more then in 

 company, went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a 

 great fowle, somewhat bigger than the largest Turkey-cock, and so 

 legged and footed, but shorter and thicker, and of a more erect shape, 

 coloured before like the breast of a young cock Fesan, and on the 

 back of dunn or deare coulour. The keeper called it a Dodo, and in 

 the ende of a chimney in the chamber there lay an heap of large 

 pebble stones, whereof he gave it many in our sight, some as bigge as 

 nutmegs, and the keeper told us shee eate them, conducing unto 

 digestion ; and though I remember not how far the keeper was 

 questioned herein, yet I am confident that afterwards shee cast 

 them all agayne." 



Whether this bird was, however, after all a real Dodo is verj 

 * See note on the pouch of the Hurgila, p. 312. 



