BIRDS. 



499 



feathers ; so that it was like a pigmy among them if 3*011 regard the short- 

 ness of its legs. It hath a great ill-favoured head, covered with a mem- 

 brane resembling a hood; great black eyes; a bending prominent fat 

 neck, an extraordinary long, strong, bluish white bill, only the cuds of 

 each mandible are of a different colour, that of the upper black, that of 

 the nether yellowish, both sharp-pointed and crooked. Its gape, huge 

 wide, as being naturally very voracious. Its body is fat and round, cov- 

 ered with soft gray feathers after the manner of an ostrich ; in each side, 

 instead of hard wing-feathers or quills, it is furnished with small soft- 



Fig. 417. — Tooth-bill pigeon (Diduncvlus strii/irostris) . 



feathered wings of a yellowish ash colour ; and behind the rump instead 

 of a tail is adorned with five small curled feathers of the same colour. It 

 hath yellow legs, thick but very short ; four toes in each foot, solid, long, 

 as it were scaly, armed with strong black claws. It is a slow-paced and 

 stupid bird, which easily becomes a prey to the fowlers. The flesh, espe- 

 cially of the breast, is fat, esculent, and so copious that three or four dodos 

 will sometimes suffice to fill one hundred seamen's bellies. If they be old 

 or not well boiled, they be difficult of concoction, and are salted and 

 stored up for provision of victual." Another author says that ■'meat it 



