4.4. rllSrORY OF 



would take it for a tortoise that had supplied itsell" with the 

 feathers of a bird ; and that thus dressed out with the instru- 

 ments 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 nau- 

 seous 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 

 uncertain. 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 difTerence 

 given is in the colour of the feathers, which in the female of the 

 bird of Naznreth 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.* 



* The Dodo, described above, lias now become extinct, and its former ex. 

 istence lias even been called in question by some writers. The following: is 

 a statement of all that is known regarding it. 



The Hollanders, who, in 151)3, fitted out a fleet commanded by Admiral 

 Cornelisz Van Neck, landed at the Isle of France, then generally called 

 Jlauritius, and before that kno« n under the name of Ilha do Cirne, or Cisne, 

 which had been iinyosid upon it by the Poj tuguese, and higiiifying- the isle of 

 swans. They there found birds as bulky as u swan, which had on a very 

 thick head a sort of capote of skiu, and but tluee or four black feathers iu 

 tlie place of wings, and four or five small greyish feathers, and frizzled, in. 

 Btead of a tail. These birds were named by the Dutch )y<ilyvogeh, which 

 literally signifies birds of disgust, on account of the hardness of their flesh, 

 whi<'h cooking only seemed to render more coriaceous, except that of the 

 stomach, v\hich was found tolerably good. 



A Dutch vessel set out from liie Te.xel at the end of 1618, under the com- 

 mand of Bontekoe, and having landed at the Isle of Bourbon, then called 

 Mascarenas, the crew found there the same kind of birds, which, so far from 

 being able to fly, were so fat that they even «'alked with difficulty. The 

 KoUandeis named them Dod-aers or Dod-acrsen. The relation of Bontekoe, 

 inserted in Hakluyt's Voyages, contains a figure of one of them under the 

 first of these names, but without any ot'icr details. 



