202 FAUNA OF MASCARENE, COMORO, AND SEYCHELLE ISLANDS 



Till a comparatively recent date many of these islands were the homes of 

 some very remarkable types of birds, which have no near relations now living; 

 while they were, and to a certain extent still are, the habitat of an extraordinary 

 number of species of giant land-tortoises, a group known elsewhere at the present 

 day only in the Galapagos Islands, off the Pacific coast of South America. 



Till about the middle of last century the island of Reunion, or 



Birds 



Bourbon, was inhabited by the pied starling (Fregilupus varius), the 

 sole representative of its genus. Easily recognised by its parti-coloured plumage, 

 long curved beak, and elongated crest, this bird was probably discovered by Flacourt 

 in the middle of the seventeenth century. In the early part of the last century 

 it was abundant, but in 1833 had become extremely scarce, and by about 1860 had 

 probably ceased to exist even in its last refuge in the interior of the island. 

 Twenty-one skins, of which one is in the Natural History branch of the British 

 Museum (although not shown to the public), and two skeletons, of which one is 

 at Cambridge, are all the relics of this interesting species that can be identified. 



In the same island flourished up to the year 1761 a dodo (Didus borbonicus) 

 near akin to the typical Mauritius species to be mentioned next, but distinguished 

 by the first four primary quills pointing downwards and forwards. In colour it was 

 white and yellow. Two skeletons of this species are preserved at Cambridge. The 

 true dodo (D. vneptus) of Mauritius was, on the other hand, grey in general colour 

 with a whitish breast and tail, and black tips to the yellowish white wing-coverts, 

 the first four primaries being directed backwards. In both kinds the wings were 

 useless for flight, and the most striking feature of both was the enormous beak, 

 which terminates in a hook. The dodo appears to have been first mentioned in 

 1598 by the Dutch Admiral Cornelius Van Neck, who called it the walghvogel, 

 and stated that in his opinion the flesh was unpleasant in flavour. Three years 

 later a picture by De Bry is stated to have been painted from a specimen brought 

 alive to Holland. During the next thirty years many portraits of this strange 

 bird were executed, the best known being those by the two Saverys, which are 

 preserved in various museums, and the one by Goivinau at Sion House. From these 

 portraits, as well as from the skeleton and certain parts of the body which have 

 been preserved, we learn that the dodo was a clumsily built bird as large as a 

 turkey, with short legs, a sparse covering of curly feathers on the body, and a 

 tuft of feathers on the tail resembling a small feather-brush. Unaccustomed 

 to the presence of man, the dodo, — meaning simpleton, — as it was called by 

 the Portuguese on account of its stupid, sluggish habits, showed no fear and no 

 inclination to attempt to escape when approached. Consequently it was not 

 long after the discovery of Mauritius that it became extinct, the last mention 

 of the living bird occurring in the log-book of Mr. Benjamin Harvey, who 

 visited Mauritius in the year 1681. In the meantime several living specimens 

 of the bird were brought to England. Herbert Altham, for instance, made a 

 picture of one in 1628 ; a second reached the Anatomical School at Oxford, six 

 years later ; and a third was exhibited in London in a travelling show about the 

 year 1638. Several examples were also acquired by museums, among them being 

 one belonging to Tradescant, of which the head and one foot are still preserved 

 at Oxford. From the time of its extermination nothing more was heard of the 



