58 The Dodo and its Kindred, 



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a half penny roll or of that of a Pelican, and that the young ones 

 have a stone in the gizzard." 



Sir Hamon Lestrange, father of the more celebrated Sir Roger, 

 relates, thus: "About 1638, as I walked London streets, I saw 

 the picture of a strange fowle hung out upon a cloth, and myselfe 

 with one or two more then in company went in to see it. It was 

 kept in a chamber, and was a great fowle, somewhat bigger than 

 the largest Turky Cock, and so legged and footed, but stouter 

 and thicker and of a more erect shape, colored before like the 

 breast of a young Fesan, and on the back of dun or deare color. 

 The keeper called it a Dodo, and in the end of a chymney in the 

 chamber there lay a heape of large pebble stones, whereof hee 

 gave it many in our sight, some as bigg as nutmegs, and the keeper 

 told us shee eats them, (conducing to digestion,) and though I re- 

 member not how farr the keeper was questioned therein, yet I am 

 confident that afterwards shee cast them all againe." 



Thus it appears that a living Dodo was exhibited in London, 

 more that two hundred years ago. 



In Piso's edition of Bontius, 1658, there is a description of the 

 Dodo, with a figure, being the earliest copy from one of Savery's 

 paintings. The bird is described as between the ostrich and 

 turkey. Its legs are short, with four toes, stout, long, scaly, and 

 the claws strong and black — the head large and clumsy, and cov- 

 ered with a membrane like a hood. The eyes are large and 

 black ; the neck curved, prominent and fat ; the beak remarkably 



long and strong — the gape hideous — enormously wide, as though 



formed for gluttony. The body is fat, round and clothed with 

 grey feathers, in the manner of ostriches ; in place of quills are 

 small grey feathered wings, and in place of a tail, fine curved 

 plumes of the same color. The bird is slow and stupid, and 

 easily taken by the hunters. The flesh, especially that of the 

 breast, is fat and eatable, unless when it is old or not well boiled. 

 Three or four have sometimes sufficed to feed a hundred seamen. 

 They swallow pebbles and all sorts of hard substances without 

 digesting them. 



Captain Wm. Talbot, of the ship Berkley Castle, was in Mauri- 

 tius in 1679, and the journal of his mate, Benjn. Harry, mentions, 

 among the productions of the island, Dodos, whose flesh is very 

 hard. This is the most recent account of the existence of Dodos 

 in Mauritius. 



The above is a condensed abstract from Mr. Strickland's work, 

 of the historical evidence regarding the existence of the Dodo. In 

 1644. the Dutch began to colonize Mauritius, and these noble 

 birds were so speedily destroyed by the thoughtless rapacity ot 

 the colonists — aided by their companions, dogs, cats and mice, 

 which eagerly devoured the eggs o( the Dodo — that they are not 

 even mentioned by Leguat among the productions of the island. 



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