THE DODO. 



469 



ing coals, without testifying the smallest fear, 

 or feeling the least injury. It is said, that 

 the passage ot' the food through its gullet is. 

 performed so speedily, that even the very 

 eggs which it has swallowed whole, pass 

 through it unbroken, in the same form they 

 went down. In fact, the alimentary canal of 

 this animal, as was observed above, is ex- 

 tremely short ; and it may happen that many 

 kinds of food are indigestible in its stomach, 

 as wheat or currants are to a man when 

 swallowed whole. 



The cassowary's eggs are of a gray ash 

 colour, inclining to green. They are not so 

 large nor so round as those of the ostrich. 

 They are marked with a number of little 

 tubercles of a deep green, and the shell is 

 not very thick. The largest of these is found 

 to be fifteen inches round one way, and about 

 twelve the other. 



The southern parts of the most eastern 

 Indies seems to be the natural climate of the 

 cassowary. His domain, if we may so call it, 

 begins where that of the ostrich terminates. 

 The latter has never been found beyond the 



Ganges; while the cassowary is never seen 

 nearer than the islands of Banda, Sumatra, 

 Java, the Molucca Islands, and the corres- 

 ponding parts of the continent. Yet even 

 here this animal seems not to have multiplied 

 in any considerable degree, as we find one 

 of the kings of Java making a present of one 

 of these birds to the captain of a Dutch ship, 

 considering it as a very great rarity. The 

 ostrich, that has kept in the desert and un- 

 peopled regions of Africa, is still numerous, 

 and the unrivalled tenant of its own inhospi- 

 table climate. But the cassowary, that is the 

 inhabitant of a more peopled and polished 

 region, is growing scarcer every day. It is 

 thus that in proportion as man multiplies, all 

 the savage and noxious animals fly before 

 him : at his approach they quit their ancient 

 habitations, how adapted soever they may 

 be to their natures, and seek a more peace- 

 able, though barren, retreat : where they 

 willingly exchange plenty for freedom : 

 and encounter all the dangers of famine, to 

 avoid the oppressions of an unrelenting de- 

 stroyer. 



CHAPTER LXXX. 



THE DODO. 



MANKIND have generally made swiftness 

 the attribute of birds ; but the dodo has no 

 title to this distinction. Instead of exciting 

 the idea of swiftness by its appearance, it 

 seems to strike the imagination as a thing the 

 most unwieldy and inactive of all nature. Its 

 body is massive, almost round, and covered 

 Avith gray feathers: it is just barely support- 

 ed upon two short thick legs, like pillars, 

 while its head and neck rise from it in a man- 

 ner truly grotesque. The neck, thick and 

 pursy, is joined to the head, which consists 

 of two great chaps, that open far behind the 

 eyes, which are large, black, and prominent; 

 so that the animal, when it gapes, seems to be 

 all mouth. The bill, therefore, is of an ex- 

 traordinary length, not flat and broad, but 

 thick, and of a bluish white, sharp at the end, 



and each chap crooked in opposite directions. 

 They resemble two pointed spoons that are 

 laid together by the backs. From all this 

 results a stupid and voracious physiognomy ; 

 which is still more increased by a bordering 

 of feathers round the root of the beak, and 

 which gives the appearance of a hood or 

 cowl, and finishes this picture of stupid de- 

 formity. Bulk, which in other animals implies 

 strength, in this only contributes to inactivity. 

 The ostrich, or the cassowary, are no more 

 able to fly than the animal before us; but 

 then they supply that defect by their speed 

 in running. The dodo seems weighed down 

 by its oAvn heaviness, and has scarcely 

 strength to urge itself forward. It seems 

 among birds what the sloth is among quadru- 

 peds, an unresisting thing, equally incapable 

 3Z* 



