170 



THE DODO. 



of flight or defence. It is furnished with 

 wing*,covered with soft ash-coloured feathers, 

 but they are too short to assist it in flying. 

 It is furnished with a tail, with a few small 

 curled feathers; but this tail is dispropor- 

 tioned and displaced. Its legs are too short 

 for running, and its body too fat to be strong. 

 One would take it for a tortoise that had 

 supplied itself with the feathers of a bird; 

 and that thus dressed out with the instru- 

 ments of flight, it was only still the more un- 

 wieldy. 



This bird is a native of the Isle of Francs; 

 and the Dutch, who first discovered it there, 

 called it, in their language, the nauseous bird, 

 as well from its disgusting figure as from the 

 bad taste of its flesh. However, succeeding 

 observers contradict the first report, and as- 

 sert that its flesh is good and wholesome eat- 

 ing. It is a silly simple bird, as may very 



well be supposed from its figure, and is very 

 easily taken. Three or four dodos are 

 enough to dine a hundred men. 



Whether the dodo be the same bird with 

 that which some travellers have described 

 under the bird of Nazareth, yet remains un- 

 certain. The country from whence they both 

 come is the same ; their incapacity of flying 

 is the same ; the form of the wings and 

 body in both are similar ; but the chief dif- 

 ference given is in the colour of the feathers, 

 which in the female of the bird of Nazareth 

 are said to be extremely beautiful ; and in the 

 length of their legs, which in the dodo are 

 short; in the other, are described as long. 

 Time and future observation must clear up 

 these doubts ; and the testimony of a single 

 witness, who shall have seen both, will throw 

 more light on the subject than the reasonings 

 of a hundred philosophers. 



