D O C K D O G. 



295 



it watches with great caro. In this also it passes the 

 winter, having first closed the mouth. The males as 

 well us the females construct these cells. 



DOCK. The vulgar name of a British weed 

 called by botanists liiin\i: Including the different 

 sorts of sorrel, there are nine or ten species oi' Ituwex 

 in Britain ; the large leaved are called docks, and the 

 small leaved are called sorrels. 



DODO Didus. A genus of birds inhabiting, or 

 rather said to have inhabited, the island of Madagas- 

 car, but which is now extinct, and indeed the existence 

 of it at any time, as answering to the descriptions 

 which are given by the older writers, is somewhat 

 doubtful. The first description, or rather the only 

 one which even pretends to be founded on actual 

 observation, was given by the Dutch, when they first 

 visited that part of the world ; and of which an oil 

 painting was made about the same period. The de- 

 scription and a copy of the painting were given by 

 Cluseus in his account of exotic birds ; the picture 

 was also copied by Edwards ; and from these sources 

 the bird got into the popular books as a living inha- 

 bitant of the earth. But the remains of it are very 

 scanty, and it is doubtful whether they have all be- 

 longed to the same kind of bird ; there is a foot in 

 the British Museum, the mutilated remains of a head 

 in the Ashmalean Museum of Oxford, and a skull, a 

 sternum, and sonic bones of the extremities were sent 

 to Paris, which last were discovered in a cave in the 

 small island of Rodriguez, about a thousand miles to 

 the eastward of Madagascar, about fifty years ago. 

 The foot is webbed, and very like the foot of a 

 penguin ; and if there ever was such a bird as the dodo, 

 it must have been, like the patagonian penquin, nearly 

 incapable of flight. The account given in the books 

 is, that at the time when the Dutch first visited this 

 Archipelago, that is, Madagascar and the small isles 

 to the eastward, these birds were found in abundance ; 

 but the result of all subsequent inquiry has been no- 

 thing more than the fragments which we have men- 

 tioned. There have been two species of this bird 

 mentioned ; but one of them, Didus solitarius, and 

 indeed another, Didus Nazarcnus, are certainly spuri- 

 ous, and as no more of the third can be found, it 

 scarcely belongs to popular natural history. 



Didr.- inept us. 



This species (Didus inept us), of which we give 

 a figure, without vouching for its being a likeness of 



any bird that ever lived, is described as being one of 

 the largest of the feathered race, but the most uncouth 

 and unwieldy of the whole. Its colour is said to 

 have been black, with only a thin covering of feathers, 

 and the head covered with a membranous hood. 

 Only four or five short black feathers in the place of 

 wings, and a tuft of curly feathers instead of tail. 

 The tarsi short, very thick and stout, and covered 

 with brown scales ; the toes very short, webbed, and 

 without any claws. The bill very large, yellow at 

 the base, black at the tip, and blue in the middle 

 portion of its length. 



The recent discovery of the apteryx (see the arti- 

 cle APTERYX) on the island of New Zealand, and 

 the fact that only the one specimen of that curious 

 bird had been seen by Europeans, gave some ground 

 for believing that there might possibly be in the 

 southern hemisphere, which is remarkable for the 

 singularity of many of its animals, some such bird as 

 this same dodo ; but the form given to the bird in the 

 picture, and the weight ascribed to it, namely more 

 than fifty pounds, are rather contradictory of any 

 hope of seeing it. The organisation of the apteryx 

 is no doubt peculiar ; as the bird can neither fly nor 

 swim, and from the shortness of its legs cannot be a 

 very swift walker ; but the apteryx has still an orga- 

 nisation which one can understand, and perceive that 

 it is not badly adapted for the situations in which it 

 is said to be found, the rocky and stony places on 

 the east side of New Zealand. The dodo, as de- 

 scribed, has on the other hand no distinct system of 

 locomotion, and is quite a bird of the ultima thulc, fit 

 for neither land, sea, nor air. The feet are webbed, 

 but there is nothing to answer to them in swimming ; 

 the absence of wings forbids the notion of an air bird, 

 and the feet are not adapted for walking. 



DOG Canis. A genus of carnivorous mammalia, 

 and one of the roost interesting of the whole class. 

 It consists of several sjenera, or rather perhaps sub- 

 genera; the dog properly so called, the wolf, the fox, 

 the jackall, and the hyecna, all of which produce 

 hybrids, and, generally speaking, we believe fertile 

 hybrids with each other; but though this warrants 

 the consideration and description of all these animals 

 as one group, and though they have many characters 

 in common, yet they are so numerous, and the pecu- 

 liarities of each are so distinct, that we shall perhaps 

 best observe clearness of description, and propriety 

 of arrangement, if we treat of them under their com- 

 mon names of DOGS, FOXES, HYAENAS, JACKALLS, 

 and WOLVES. These five divisions fail into two 

 classes, which are founded upon their principal habits--. 

 The dogs and wolves have the pupil of the eye round, 

 and they are social in their predatory huntings ; and 

 though these huntings are not confined to the day, 

 yet they are, generally speaking, more of diurnal than 

 of nocturnal animals. The foxes and hysenas, on the 

 other hand, are less social in their characters, the 

 foxes especially are of solitary habits, and they arc 

 more nocturnal than otherwise, though the time at 

 which they seek their prey is early morning rather 

 than during the darkness of the night. The whole 

 of the group however consists of animals which 

 are peculiarly flexible in their characters ; and, the 

 human race excepted, perhaps yield more to clirnatal 

 >nd local circumstances than any other family of 

 carnivorous mammalia. They are found in all cli- 

 mates, and they appear to have wonderful facilities of 

 adapting themselves to the climate, being almost des- 

 titute of hair in the very warm latitudes, but becoming 



