BIRD LIFE 237 



relation of the Dodo, has during the last few years 

 completely changed its habits. ' It is/ writes Doctor 

 Sharpe in his Wonders of the Bird World, only 

 'found in the Navigator's Island, as Samoa is some- 

 times called. It has perfectly-formed wings, but until 

 recently never used them, as it had no natural enemies 

 in its island home, and was accustomed not only to live 

 on the ground, but to breed in colonies, and to deposit 

 its eggs on the side of a hill. As Samoa became 

 civilised, however, the usual accompaniments of civili- 

 sation prevailed in the shape of cats and rats, the 

 former devouring the birds, the latter their eggs, and 

 speedy extermination appeared to be the fate in store 

 for the Didunculus.' They have taken the hint in 

 time, and are now, happily, a thriving and prosperous 

 colony of birds ' building, feeding, and roosting on the 

 high trees.' 



While on the subject of relations of the poor old 

 Dodo, it is worth noticing in passing an odd instance 

 of adaptation of form for special ends. On the island 

 of Rodriguez, not far from the Mauritius, which was 

 the home of the Dodo, lived in former days another 

 bird, in many respects like it the Solitaire. It seems, 

 according to the accounts left of it by Leguat, a 

 Huguenot who took refuge in Rodriguez in the seven- 

 teenth century, when the Solitaire was still plentiful, to 

 have been a pugnacious bird, and, having little or no 

 use for its wings in other directions, it was a flightless 

 bird, used them mainly as a weapon in free fights for 

 the favour of the females. Nature, apparently with 



