344 VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



surmounted with a bony helmet, and the neck is fur- 

 nished with hanging wattles. The presence of the 

 wing is marked merely by three or four stiff-pointed 

 shafts, entirely destitute of barbs. The skin of the 

 head is varied with azure blue, and bright scarlet 

 tints ; which, with its nakedness, remind one of 

 some of the Vultures. It inhabits the great Indian 

 Islands, and is but little inferior in magnitude to the 

 Ostrich. 



A very remarkable bird, called the Dodo (Didus * 

 Ineptus], once an inhabitant of the Isle of France, 

 but now believed to be extinct, has usually been 

 placed with this group ; but Mr. Swainson considers, 

 and apparently with reason, that it was rather allied 

 to the Vultures. The only existing remains of the 

 species are, a beak, and one leg, in the Ashmolean 

 Museum at Oxford, and another leg in the British 

 Museum ; the relics of a specimen formerly pre- 

 served in the museum of John Tradescant. An ori- 

 ginal painting, apparently taken from a living speci- 

 men, is also preserved in the British Museum.")- It is 

 by no means impossible that the species may yet exist 

 in the little known regions of South-eastern Africa, 

 or the interior of Madagascar. 



There is yet another bird of large size, and singu- 



* Probably a native name Latinized. 



f As every trace of this lost form is highly interesting, we gladly add 

 the facts lately recorded in the Penny Cyclop. ART. Struthionidae : That 

 another painting, bearing all the marks of having been made from the 

 living bird, exists in Savory's " Orpheus and the Beasts," at the Hague ; 

 and that the skull of a Dodo has been lately found in the Museum at 

 Copenhagen. 



