Mr. H. E. Strickland on the Dodo and its Kindred. 259 



distinctive, I had meditated calling it Maria, in remembrance of 

 my late talented little niece, who had assisted me so much in my 

 natural history studies, by collecting specimens and getting up 

 facts relating to the instincts and habits of the objects I noted 

 or described. Maria was with me in Manchester when I procured 

 the green-backed swallow [yo\xv Hirundo euchrysea), and we visited 

 together in the very district where this new Trochilus was found ; 

 but I hesitated about the adoption of her name, from the impos- 

 sibility of putting it in any other way than as ' Trochilus Maria* 

 though T. Cora and T. Mango might reconcile me to it. 

 [Other examples, as Anna, Sappho, &c., might also be added.] 

 I leave the matter in your hands, but would suggest that the 

 specific soubriquet should be considered undetermined, till fresh 

 specimens be obtained." 



A figure of this specimen appears in my * Illustrations,^ Part xiii. 

 plate 22. 



XXXI. — Supplementary Notices regarding the Dodo and its 

 Kindred. Nos. 4, 5. By H. E. Strickland, M.A., F.G.S. 



[Continued from p. 139.] 



4. The Dodo applied to Heraldry. — I am indebted to the Rev. 

 Richard Hooper, of St. Stephen^ s, Westminster, for obligingly 

 calling my attention to what may be called the heraldic depart- 

 ment of the Dodo-history. The introduction of such a subject 

 into a scientific journal would require apology were it not certain 

 that many a curious fact of history, both physical and civil, may 

 be disentangled from the quaint devices of armorial pageantry. 

 It now appears that besides the '^ human Dodos " referred to by a 

 witty (yet scientific) writer in Blackwood^s Magazine (Jan. 1849, 

 p. 81), a family has existed in modern times, bearing the syno- 

 nymous name of Dronte, and decorated with a Dodo on their 

 armorial shield. Could we now trace out the whereabouts of this 

 family, we might possibly elicit from their archives some original 

 facts connected with the present matter. All my inquiries about 

 the Dronte family have indeed hitherto been fruitless, but I hope 

 that this notice may induce heraldic students to throw light on 

 the subject. The passage to which I here refer is contained in 

 the ' Academy of Armory and Blazon ' by Randle Holme, pub- 

 lished at Chester in 1688 ; book ii. ch. 13. p. 289. The Rev. 

 J. Baron of Queen^s College, Oxford, has kindly afforded access 

 to a copy of this rare work in the library of that college, and has 

 enabled Mr. Delamotte to engrave the following facsimile of the 

 heraldic device. This figure seems to have been copied, with a 

 little alteration, from that contained in the rare edition of Bon- 



17* 



