Mr. Duncan on the Dodo. 557 



He mentions farther that he had himself seen only a leg of the 

 Dodo, brought from the Isle of Mauritius, in the house of Peter 

 Pauw, a celebrated Medical Professor of Leyden. His Exotica is 

 dated 1605. 



The second is from Herbert, who published his travels in 

 Africa, Asia, &c. in 1634. 



The third is in Willughby's Ornithology, and is taken from 

 that given in Jacobi Bontii Historia Naturalis et Medica Indias 

 Orientalis, 1658. It exactly corresponds with the painting in the 

 British Museum, which was excellently copied, in 1760, by 

 Edwards, who says, " The original picture was drawn in Holland 

 from the living bird brought from St. Maurice's Island in the East 

 Indies in the early times of the discovery of the Indies by the 

 way of the Cape of Good Hope. It was the property of the late 

 Sir Hans Sloane to the time of his death ; and afterwards becom- 

 ing my property I deposited it in the British Museum as a great 

 curiosity. The above history of the picture I had from Sir Hans 

 Sloane and the late Dr. Mortimer, Secretary to the Royal So- 

 ciety." 



Clusius calls it Gallus gallinaceus peregrinus, and says the 

 Dutch sailors called it Wulgh-Vogel^ " nauseam move ns avis. " 

 Bontius compares it in some points to an Ostrich, places it in his 

 book next to the Cassowary, and calls it Dronte. Others, as 

 BufFon, &c., have called it a Swan, Cygnus cucullatus, Cygne 

 capuchonne. 



Ray published in 1676 and 1688 editions of the Ornithology of 

 his friend Willughby ; who, after quoting the accounts of Clusius 

 and Bontius, adds " We have seen this bird dried, or its skin stufft 

 in Tradescant's cabinet." In Ray's Synopsis Avium, published in 

 1713, after Ray's death, the Dodo is called Cygnus cucidlaius, 

 Bontius only being quoted. It is ranged under the head of 

 " Aves rostris rectioribus minusque hamatis." 



"When it is considered that the first and second figures are mere 

 sketches of travellers who were not artists, the points of general re- 

 semblance are perhaps sufficient to warrant our belief that they pos- 

 sibly may refer to an original resembling the third. The hooded 

 appearance of the occiput, the eye placed in a bare callous skin 



