NATURAL HISTORY. 



Sub-family c. IMdince. 

 DIDUS. 



Ineptus (Lat. stupid), the Dodo. 



This singular bird, which is supposed to be extinct, was 

 discovered at the Mauritius by the earlier voyagers. For 

 many years their accounts of the Dodars were supposed to be 

 mere flights of fancy. Lately, however, the discovery of 

 several relics of this bird in various countries has set the 

 question at rest. Not so the question of the proper position 

 of the bird. Some think it belongs to the pigeons, and some 

 to the ostriches. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford are 

 a head and foot of the Dodo, sole remnants of a perfect speci- 

 men known to have existed in 1700 ; and in the same place, 

 in the year 1847, during the meeting of the British Association, 

 were gathered together the whole of the existing remains from 

 every country. 



In the travels of Sir T. Hubert, in the year 1627, are 

 several accounts. From the work of this traveller, whose 



