RETREAT 



369 



power of flight without correspondingly increased powers of 

 running, and have paid the penalty of extinction. Such an 

 arrangement, as might be anticipated, was the result of evolution 

 in islands devoid of any predatory ground-animals, and a classic 

 example of it is afforded by the Dodo and its allies, birds related 



Fig. 509. The Dodo (Didus ineptus 



to the pigeons. The Dodo itself (Didus ineptus) (fig. 509) was 

 a large and clumsy-looking species that at one time abounded 

 in the island of Mauritius, which, like oceanic islands generally, 

 possessed no native mammals, while its indigenous reptiles were 

 only represented by lizards. The ubiquitous sailor, however, and 

 the animals (especially swine) which he introduced, brought about 

 the extinction of this helpless bird in less than a century after 

 its first discovery in 1598. Its memory is now only kept green 

 by a few contemporary drawings and descriptions, certain museum 



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