THE DODO. 



97 



r.peedily, 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 extremely short; and it may 

 happen that many kinds of food are indiges- 

 tible in its stomach, as wheat or currants are 

 to a man when swallowed whole. 



The cassowary's eggs are of a giay 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 tu- 

 bercles 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 cassow- 

 ary. His domain, if we may so call it, begins 

 where that of the ostrich terminates. The 

 latter has never been found beyond the Gan- 

 ges; while the cassowary is never seen nearer 

 than the islands of Banda, Sumatra, Java, the 

 Molucca Islands, and the corresponding parts 

 of the continent. Yet even here this animal 

 seems not to have multiplied in any consider- 

 able 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 unpeopled regions of 

 Africa, is still numerous, and the unrivalled 

 tenant of its own inhospitable climate. But 

 the cassowary, that is the inhabitant of a more 

 peopled and polished region, is growing scar- 

 cer 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 peaceable, though barren, retreat; where 

 they willingly exchange plenty for freedom ; 

 and encounter all thedangersof famine, to avoid 

 the oppressions of an unrelenting destroyer. 



CHAP. VII. 



THE DODO. 



(See Plate XX. fig. 28.) 



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 with 

 gray feathers ; it is just barely supported 

 upon two short thick legs, like pillars, while 



its head and neck rise from it in a mannei 

 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 extraor- 

 dinary 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 to- 

 gether 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 deformity. 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 own heaviness, 

 and has scarcely strength to urge itself for- 

 ward. It seems among birds what the sloth 

 is among quadrupeds, an unresisting thing, 

 equally incapable of flight or defence. It is 

 furnished with wings, 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 disproportioned 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 in- 

 struments of flight, it was only still the more 

 unwieldy. 



This bird is a native of the Isle of France ; 

 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 assert 

 that its flesh is good and wholesome eating. 

 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 difference 

 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 ; 



