562 Mr. Duncan on the Dodo. 



breves pro tam crasso crura ; nam maximi sive medii ad unguena 

 usque longitudo binas uncias non admodum superabat, aliorum 

 duorair. illi proximorum vix binas uncias oequabat, posterioris ses- 

 cunciam : omnium vero ungues crassi, duri, uigri, minus uncia 

 longi, sed posterioris digiti longior rcliquis, & unciam superans. 



Nautaj huic avi nomen indebant suo idiomate Wulgh-vogel, hoc 

 est, nauseam movens avis, partim quod post diuturnam elixationem, 

 ejus caro non fieret tenerior, sed dura permaneret & difficilis con- 

 coctioiiis (excepto ejus pectore & ventriculo, quae non conteranen- 

 di saporis esse comperiebant) partim quod multos turtures nancisci 

 poterant, quos delicatiores & ori magis gratos reperiebant. Istam 

 autem insulam Batavi appellabant Mauritii insulam a Principe 

 Mauritio, ante a Lusitanis Ilha do Cerne vel Cirne nuncupatam (ut 

 ante diximus) id est insulam Cygna^um, forsitan ob conspectara ia 

 ipsa jam commemoratam avem, quam cygnum esse existimassent.^' 



Some Years Travels into Africa, Asia, Sfc. by Thomas Herbert ^ 

 Esq. 1677. Fourth Edition. 



^' The Dodo comes first to our description, here, and in Dy- 

 garrois ; (and no where else, that ever I could see or heare of, 

 is generated the Dodo.) (A Portuguize name it is, and has re- 

 ference to her simplenes,) a bird which for shape and rarenesse 

 might be called a Phaenix (wer't in Arabia ;) her body is round 

 and extreame fat, her slow pace begets that corpulencie ; few of 

 them weigh lesse than fifty pound : better to the eye than the 

 stomack ; greasie appetites may perhaps commend them, but to 

 the indifferently curious nourishment, but prove offensive. Let's 

 take her picture : her visage darts forth melancholy, as sensible of 

 nature's injurie in framing so great and massie a body to be di- 

 rected by such small and complementall wings, as are unable to 

 hoise her from the ground, serving only to prove her a bird ; 

 which otherwise might be doubted of : her head is variously drest, 

 the one halfe hooded with downy blackish feathers ; the other, 

 perfectly naked ; of a whitish hue, as if a transparent lawne had 

 covered it : her bill is very howked and bends downwards, the 

 thrill or breathing place is in the mid'st of it ; from which part to 

 the end, the colour is a light greene mixt with a pale yellow j her 



