& A HISTORY OF 



has scarcely strength to urge itself forward. It seems among birds 

 what the sloth is among quadrupeds, an unresjsting thing, equally in- 

 capable 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 run- 

 ning, and its body too fat to be strong. One would take it for a tor- 

 toise that had supplied itself with the feathers of a bird ; and that thus 

 dressed out with the instruments of flight, it was only still the more 

 uuwieldy. 



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 this 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 name of 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 ob- 

 servation must clear up these doubts ; aud the testimony of a single 

 witness, who shall have seen botii, wiil throw more light on the sub- 

 ject than the reasonings of a hundred philosophers. 



