118 DODO. 



there lay an heap of large pebble stones, whereof 

 he gave it many in our sight, some as bigge as nut- 

 megs, and the keeper told us shee eate them, con- 

 ducing unto digestion; and though I remember not 

 how far the keeper was questioned herein, yet I 

 am confident that afterwards shee cast them all 

 agayne." 



Whether this bird was however, after all, a real 

 Dodo, is very questionable; for although there is 

 no doubt of its having been in former times abun- 

 dant in some of the islands of the Indian Ocean, it 

 is supposed to have long ago ceased to exist, and 

 is therefore generally considered, by naturalists, as 

 extinct a species, as those animals whose bones are 

 occasionally found in a fossil state, in rocks and 

 caves. 



