14 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Dodo. 



shaq>, homy spur, used as an offonsive weanon. 

 Tliere is no veklige of a tail. Tlie tongue is wiort 

 -and simple. 



The leathers are long and lanceolate, and fall 

 loosely like tho.e of the emeu, but there is only a 

 single plume from each quill. These feathers are 

 of a chestnut brown, manriiicd on each side with 

 blacki^ brown : the tint of those on thu under parts 

 is lighter. The eye is small, and a number of long 

 bristle-like hairs arc scattered around and about the 

 angles of the mouth. The bill is of a horn colour, 

 or yellowish, like a piece of cane. 



It is principally in the southern parts of the 

 middle island of New Zealand that this bird is to be 

 met with, though it exists wherever suitable locali- 

 ties afford it shelter — these are extensive beds of 

 fern, among which it conceals itself. When chased 

 it takes refuge in the clefts of rocks, in hollow trees, 

 or in deep holes which it excavates in the ground ; 

 these holes are its breeding-places, and conduct to 

 a deep chamber, in which thu apteryx makes a bed 

 of fcni for the eggs, bat neither the number nor the 

 colour of these is satisfactorily determined, nor do 

 we know any particulars respecting their incuba- 

 tion. 



Tlie food of this strange bird consists of insects, 

 and particularly worms; in order to procure the latter 

 it disturbs them by striking with its feet and bill on 

 the ground, and seizes them the instant they make 

 their appearance ; it will also thrust its bill into soft 

 soil and draw them out, swallowing them whole. 

 Night is the season of activity, the apterj-x being 

 nocturnal in its habits, and the natives are accu.s- 

 tomed to hunt it by torch-light ; they value it 

 greatly for the sake of its skin, which they prepare 

 with the feathers on. Dresses made with these 

 skins (which are singularly tough and firm) are 

 prized by the chiefs, who can rarely be induced to 

 part with them. 



When the apteryx is undisturbed and quietly 

 resting, savs Mr. Snort in' a letter to Mr. Yarrell 

 ('Trans. Z'ool. Soc' 18,^3), the head is thrown back 

 upon theshouldere, the bill pointing to the ground. 

 When pursued, it elevates the head, like an ostrich 

 and runs with great swiflness. When overtaken, it 

 defends itself with spirit and vigour, and inflicts 

 dangerous blows with its strong spur-armed feet. 



Such is the sum total of our knowledge of the 

 habits of this bird, which seems doomed to become, 

 at no distant date, exterminated from the limited 

 portion of the globe which alone forms its habitat. 

 A beautiful figure is given of it by Mr. Gould, in 

 the second part of his • Birds of Australia and New 

 Zealand.' 



Fig. 181") represents the Bill of the Apteryx ; Fig, 

 1816, the Foot of the same bird. 



Family DIDIDyK (DODO). 

 This family contains only one established genus, 

 Didus ; and the only species, as far as we can ascer- 

 tain, included in it, is extinct. 



1817.— The Dodo 



(DUius Uiephis^.. Dronte, Bontius; Walgh-Viigel of 

 the Dutch mariners, according to Clusiiis; Dod-aers 

 of the Dutch, and Dod-eereen ; Solifario of the 

 Portuguese ; Gallus gallinaceus peregrinus, Clusius ; 

 Cygnus cucuUatus, Nieremberg. 



Till the discovery, in ISC'), of the islands now called 

 Bourbon, Mauritius, and Rodrigue (but first termed 

 the Mascarenhas Isles, from the name of the Por- 

 tuguese navigator who discovered them), they ap- 

 pear never to have been occupied as a residence by 

 man; perhaps no human foot had ever trod thei'r 

 shores, no human voice broken the stillness of their 

 woodland solitudes. In these islands for ages had 

 the dodo existed undisturbed, at least by the great 

 marauder, by whom at last its race was to be ex- 

 tinguished. 



It appears, indeed, if the species be the same, that 

 the dodo was at one time not confined to those 

 islands, and that it was, previously to 150.5, known to 

 the Portuguese mariners under the name of Solitario ; 

 for Vasco de Gama, in 14U7, after doubling the Cape 

 of Storms (the Cape of Good Hope), found an island 

 near a bay (Angra de San Blaz) where solitaries 

 were plentiful, and again in 1499 touching at the 

 same place, the crew took a number of them. The 

 sailors compared these birds to swans, and called the 

 island "Ilha des Cisnes," or Isle of Swans. In 1614 

 Castleton visited Bourbon ; there he found the dodo 

 abundant, and so tame as to allow itself to be killed 

 with sticks or stones. He had also met with the 

 bird in Mauritius, where they are, as he states, in 

 great plenty, and known by the name of giants. 

 The island of Uodrigue, wliich, though previously- 

 known, had perhaps not been visited, being sur- 

 rounded by coral reefs, and also being destitute of 

 secure anchorage, was examined by Leguat in 1091, 

 who, with several companions, remained some time' 

 with a view to colonization. He there found the 

 dodo, which he terms Solitaire, or the solitary be- 

 cause it never congregates in flocks, though it is 



very abundant. He gives some particulars respect- 

 ing it, which agree in the main with those detailed 

 in ' Herbert's Travels,' published in 1634, and accom- 

 panied by a figure. 

 "The males have generally a greyish or brown 



Elumage, the feet of the turkey, and also the beak, 

 ut a little more hooked. They have hardly any 

 tail, and their rump, covered with feathers, is rounded 

 like the croup of a horse. They stand higher than 

 the turkey-cock, and have a straifjht neck, a little 

 longer in proportion than it is in that bird when it 

 raises its head. The eye is black and lively, and 

 the head without any crest or tuft. They do not 

 fly, their wings being too short to support the weight 

 of their bodies ; they only use them in beating thtir 

 sides, and in whirling round.'' The females he states 

 to be of a blond or pale brown colour : they build a 

 nest with leaves of the palm-tree on a clear spot of 

 ground, laying only one egg, larger than that of a 

 goose. Tile weight of .the males is forty-five or 

 fiHy pounds, and the flesh is, as he says, a delicacy. 

 In this description one important point is omitted, 

 that is, the hooded character of the head, well ex- 

 pressed in the account alluded to in Herbert's Travels. 

 I^gunt's figure is either very bad or his solitaire is 

 distinct from the dodo. 



In the Voyage to the East Indies, by Jacob van 

 Neck and Wybrand van Warwyk, 1598, the dodo is 

 noticed as inhabiting the island of Cerne (.Mau- 

 ritius); and De Hiy, in his description of the island 

 of Cerne, says, '■ Cerulean parrots abound there, as 

 well as other birds ; besides which is another kind, 

 of large size, exceeding our swans, with vast heads, 

 and one half covered with a skin, as it were, hooded. 

 These birds are without wings, in the place of which 

 are three or four black feathers. A few curved, 

 delicate, ash-coloured feathers constitute the tail. 

 These birds we called Walck-Vogel, because the 

 longer or more slowly they were cooked, the worse 

 they were for eating. Their breasts and bellies 

 were nevertheless of a pleasaflt flavour, and easy of 

 mastication ; but another cause for the appellation 

 we gave them was the preferable abundance of 

 turtle-doves, which were of a far sweeter and more 

 grateful flavour." De Bry gives a figure in his 

 frontispiece. Clusius, in his ' Exotica,' i605, gives 

 a figure of this bird, taken from a sketch ad natu- 

 ram, by a Dutch voyager, who had seen the bird in 

 1598. In the ' Voyage of Jacob Heemskirk and 

 Wolfert Harmansz to the East Indies in 1601, 1G02, 

 1603,' and in Willem Ysbrantsz Bontckoe van 

 Hoorn"s 'Journal of the East India Voyage, &c., in 

 1618 to 1624,' the dodo is noticed as inhabiting the 

 Mauritius. Herbert, in his ' Tiavels,' 1634, describes 

 and figures the dodo ; it is also described and figured 

 well by Bontius, 1658. To this catalogue of autho- 

 rities more might be added — but we vvill not weary 

 our readers. Among the many descriptions of the 

 bird by travellers and writers of credit, we will con- 

 tent ourselves with that of Bontius. "The Dronte, 

 or Dod-aere," he says, " is for bigness of mean size 

 between an ostrich and a turkey, from which it 

 partly differs in shape and partly agrees vi'ith them, 

 especially with the African ostriches, if you consider 

 the rump, quills, and feathers ; so that it was like a 

 pigmy among them, if you regard the shortness of 

 its legs. It hath a great, ill-favoured head, covered 

 with a kind of membrane resembling a hood ; great 

 black eyes ; a bending, prominent, I'at neck ; an 

 extraordinary long, strong, bluish-white bill, only 

 the ends of each mandible are of a different colour, 

 that of the upper black, that of the nether yellow- 

 ish, both shar()-pointed and crooked. It gapes huge 

 wide, as being naturally very voracious. Itsbody is 

 fat, round, covered with soft grey feathers, after the 

 manner of an ostrich's ; in each side, instead of hard 

 wing-feathei-s or quills, it is furnished with small, 

 soft-feathered wings, of a yellowish ash-colour ; and 

 behind, the rump, instead of a tail, is adorned with 

 five small curled feathers of the same colour. It 

 hath yellow legs, thick, but very short ; four toes in 

 each foot, solid, long, as it were scaly, armed with 

 strong black claws. It is a slow-paced and stupid 

 bird,. and which easily becomes a prey to the fowlers. 

 The flesh, especially of the breast, is fat, esculent, 

 and so copious, that three or four dodos will some- 

 times suffice to fill an hundred seamen's bellies. If 

 they be old, or not well boiled, they are of difficult 

 concoction, and are salted and stored up for pro- 

 vision of victual. There are found in their stomachs 

 stones of an ash-colour, of divers figures and mag- 

 nitudes ; yet not bred there, as the common people 

 and seamen fancy, but swallowed by the bird ; as 

 though by this mark also nature would manifest that 

 these fowl are of the ostrich kind, in that they swal- 

 low any hard things, though they do not digest 

 them." (Willughby's Trans!.) 



There is some reason to believe that a living dodo 

 was exhibited in England in 1638. (See Sloane's 

 MSS., No. 1839, .5, p. 108, Brit. Mus.) 



In the British Museum is preserved a painting of 

 this bird, the copy of an original which was taken 

 from a living specimen sent to Holland from Mau- 



ritius, while this island was held by the Dutch. 

 This copy was the property of Sir Hans Sloane, and 

 afterwai'ds of Edwards, by whom it was deposited in 

 the Museum. As it agrees with other figures, 

 namely, one in Clusius, one in Herbert's ' Travels," 

 and one in Willughby's ' Ornithology,' taken from 

 Bontius, we have every reason to rely upon it as an 

 accurate representation. Formerly a perfect speci- 

 men, noticed by Hay, existed in Tradescant's 

 Museum. This specimen afterwards passed into 

 the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, where it still 

 existed as late as 1700; it subsequently fell to 

 decay, the head and a foot alone remaining. A foot 

 of this bird is preserved in the British Museum, 

 and a breastbone in the Museum at Paris. 



We have now before us a cast of the head in thet 

 Ashmolean Museum, and a most extraordinary head, 

 it is: there is something greatly vulture-like in the 

 whole of its conformation. For example, as we find 

 in the vultures, it was evidently capable of being 

 retracted within a hood or duplicature of skin thinly 

 covered with downy feathers; the beak is stout, 

 deep, and powerful, considerably elongated, and 

 strongly hooked at the tip; its base is covered with 

 an extensive cere, at the termination of which, near 

 the edge of the upper mandible, are the nostrils ; 

 the gape is wide, extending beyond the eye ; the 

 skin of the throat was loose and thinly clothed, and 

 the top of the head appears to have been naked, or 

 only sprinkled with feathers. The measurements 

 are as follow: — from the eye to the end of the 

 beak, six inches; to the nostril, three inches ; breadth 

 of the skull across the forehead, three inches and a 

 quarter; mean depth of beak, two inches and a 

 ([uarter. Though we say the head is vulture-like in 

 its contour, we would guard ourselves from the 

 assertion that it was to the vulture family the dodo 

 belonged, as M. Blainville and some naturalists con- 

 tend : other parts of its structure, to judge from the 

 painting and the descriptions of early travellers, 

 militate against such a supposition. Cuvier refera 

 it to the gallinaceous order. Unfortunately we have 

 no means of coming to a positive conclusion ; but 

 our impression is that it forms part of the group or 

 order to which the true ostriches and apteryx also 

 belong. 



Suddenly, and apparently about the middle of the 

 seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 the dodo disappeared. Nothing was heard of it ; 

 and we only know that it does not now exist in the 

 islands which abundant testimony proves it to have 

 once inhabited. It is, in fact, extinct ; or, if it 

 indeed survive, Madagascar is the most likely spot 

 in which it lingers. We know, indeed, little of 

 Madagascar, and have been recently astonished by 

 the discovery of a species of monkey (Ceicopithecus 

 albogularis) inhabiting certain districts of that 

 island, which modern naturalists have strenuously 

 asserted to be destitute of any true Simiae. 



In concluding this brief notice of the dodo we 

 refer our readers to a paper by Mr. Duncan in the 

 ' Zoological Journal,' which contains an admirable 

 summary of its history. 



The following are figures of the dodo from differ- 

 ent works :— Fig. 1818, the Dodo, from De Bry ; Fig. 

 1819, the same, from Clusius ; Fig. 1820, the same, 

 from Herbert: Fig. 1821, the same, from Bontius; 

 Fig. 1822. le Solitaire, from Leguat ; Fig. 1823, the 

 Head of the Dodo, from a cast from the Oxford spe- 

 cimen ; Fig. 1824, the Leg of the Dodo, from the 

 specimen in the British Museum. Tai-sus four 

 inches and a half; circumference four inches ; 

 middle toe three inches. 



The subjoined letter from Professor Owen to Mr. 

 Broderip is published in the ' Penny Cyclopajdia.* 

 It is too important to be omitted : — 



" Whilst at the Hague," writes the Professor, " in 

 the summer of 1838, I was much struck with the 

 minuteness and accuracy with which the exotic spe- 

 cies of animals had been painted by Savery and 

 Breughel in such subjects as 'Paradise,' 'Orpheus 

 charming the Beasts,' &c., in which scope was al- 

 lowed for grouping together a great variety ol ani- 

 mals. Understandini; that the celebrated menagerie 

 of Prince Maurice had afforded the living models to 

 these artists, I sat down one day before Savary's 

 ' Orpheus and the Beasts,' to make a list of the species 

 which the picture sufficiently evinced that the ar- 

 tist had had the opportunity to study alive, .ludge 

 of my surprise and pleasure in detecting in a dark 

 corner of the picture (which is badly hung between 

 two windows) the Dodo, beautifully finished, .show- 

 ing for example, though but three inches long, the 

 auricular circle of feathers, the scutation of the 

 tarsi, and the loose structure of the caudal plumes. 

 In the number and proportions of the toes, and in 

 general tbrm, it accords with Edwards's oil-painting 

 in the British Musum; and I conclude that the 

 miniature must have been copied from the study of 

 a living bird, which it is most probable formed part 

 of the Mauritian menagerie. 



" The bird is standing in profile, with a lizard at 

 its feet. Not any of the Dutch naturalists to whom 



