iiiuus. 47 



the woods with animals of different dispositions, nature has 

 wisely provided for tlie multiplication of life ; since, could we 

 suppose that there were as many animals produced as there were 

 vegetables supplied to sustain them, yet there might still be ano- 



that no traces of any kind could he found, no nioro than of the truth of the 

 boautilul talo of Paul and Virgiuifi, althonj^'h a very ppucral belief pre- 

 vailed as to both the one and the other. 1 there discovered, however, a 

 copy of the scarce and curious voyage of Lepuat, who, and liis companions, 

 appear to have been the first residents of Rodriijue ; and, althouf,'h some al. 

 lowances appear to be necessary on account of tlie period in which he wrote, 

 for descriptions and drawinirs apparently from memory, and a somewliat 

 traveller-like stretch of imagination to enhance the value of his book, j-et 

 his evidence must be deemed conclusive, strenfifthened as it is by the collateral 

 testimony of other voyag-ers, aiid by all the facts and statements broug-lit 

 forward by Mr Duncan, in a paper upon this subject, published in the Zoo- 

 logical Journal for January, lS-28, p. rA!.., from which it appears, that aliird 

 of corrosponding size and character nm actually exist, of which the only re. 

 mains are a fiill and foot in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and afoot in 

 the British Museum, all of which I liad the satisfaction of examining on my 

 return from the Mavu-itius in 1816. 



Mr Duncan, in the paper alluded to, proves that a specimen of tliis bird 

 existed in lYadescaut's museum at Lambeth, where it was seen by Ray and 

 Willoughby. This museum being subsequently removed to Oxford by Dr 

 Ashmole, we find the specimen there in 1700, by the testimony of Hyde, in 

 his Religionis Veterum Persarum, SfC. Hist.; and in a catalogue of the mu- 

 seum, dra«ai up since 1755, it is stated that " the Nimibers from 5. to 46. 

 (No. 29. being that of the dodo) being decayed, were ordered to be destroyed 

 at a meeting of the visitors, Jan. 8. 1755." It is, therefore, almost certain 

 that the bill and foot stiM to be seen in that depository, were those of the 

 above specimen. To verify the painting which is also to be seen in the 

 British Museum, Mr Duncan appears to have taken all the piiins possible, 

 and states it to have been drawn from a living bird, .sent from the Maiu-itius 

 to Holland, the Dutch being the first colonists of that island ; to dissipate 

 all doubts as to its accuracy, liowever, it should be collated with a doscrip. 

 tion taken from the Ashmolean specimen, should such be found to exist. 



The island of Rodrigue, or Diego Ruys, although seen by several of the 

 earlier voyagers, after the discovery of the route to India by the Cape, does 

 not appear to have been visited anterior to the voyage of Leguat, from ita 

 unapproachable appearance, and the apparent continuity of the extensive 

 madreporetic reef which every where surrounds it, and upon wliich the sea 

 continuiilly breaks, at a very considerable distance from the shore ; the 

 same causes still operate in repelling the tide of colonisation, as, at the time 

 of onr late conquest of the group to which it belongs, a single French family 

 constituted the whole of its population. Leguat and Iiis companions, then 

 may be presumed to have seen it in its virgin state ; a circumstance which 

 makes his narration doubly interesting, and shows not only the abundance 

 of its animal productions, but the paradisiacal peace and amity wliicli ap- 

 peared to reign amongst them, and the little dread they seemed to possess Ht 

 the presence of their di^stinod destroyer. Of the dodo, he says . — 



*' Of all tlie birds which inhabit this island, the mo.st remaruable is tliat 



