THE DODO. 63 



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 

 Bird of Nazareth, yet remains uncertain. The 

 country from whence they both came is the 

 same j 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 ; 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. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OF RAPACIOUS BIRDS IN GENERAL. 



THERE seems to obtain a general resemblance in 

 all the classes of nature. As, among quadrupeds, 

 a part were seen to live upon the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of the earth, and another part upon the 



