DODO. — Didvs inejiivs 



Other travellers, siicli as Legiiat and De Bry, agree with Boutins in his description of 

 the Ijird, and coincide in his opinion of the excellence of its flesh ; but one writer, Sir 

 T. Herbert, who visited the Manritius al)out 1625, differs greatly in his estimation of' the 

 vahie of the Dodo as an article of food. In his book of travels, which is perhaps 

 the quaintest and raciest to be found among such literature, he speaks as follows of 

 this bird : — 



" The Dodo, a bird the Dutch call AYalghvogel, or Dod Eersen ; her body is round and 

 fat,^ which occasions the slow pace, or that her corpulencie, and so great as few of them 

 weigh less tlian fifty pound : meat it is with some, but better to the eye than stomach, 



such as only a strong appetite can vaiiquis]i It is of a melancholy visage, as sensible 



of nature's injury in framing so massie a body to be directed by complimental wings, 

 such, indeed, as are unable to hoise her from the ground, serving only to rank her among 

 Ijirds. Her traine, three small plumes, short and improportionable, her legs suiting to 

 her body, her pounces sharpe, lier a])petite strong and greedy. Stones and ironware 

 digested ; which description will belter be conceived in her'representation." 



_ So plentiful were the Dodos at one time, and so easily were they killed, that tlie 

 sailors were in the habit of shiying tlie birds merely for the sake of the stones in their 

 stomachs, these being found very efficacious in sharpening their clasp-knives. The nest of 

 the Dodo was a mere heap of fallen leaves gathered together on the oround, and the bird 

 laid but one large egg. The weight of one full-grown Dodo was said to be between forly 

 and fifty pounds. The colour of the plumage was a greyish ])rown in the adult males, 

 not unlike that of the ostrich, while the ])lumage of the females was of a paler hue. 



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