128 ON THE EXTINCT BIRDS OF 



It is not necessary to repeat here the accounts of the way the Do Dos 

 were put to death, given by various writers. 



Mr. E. L. Layard says (P. Z. S. 1875, p. 437), of Columba vitiensis, Quoy 

 & Gaim. (a large Pigeon, rather abundant on Ovalau and Kandavu, Fiji 

 Islands), that on one occasion, on Wakaia Island, '' a captain of a merchant- 

 man, and another, killed upwards of a hundred between landing one morning 

 and departure next day." But the real cause of the slaughter of these now 

 extinct birds was the w^ant of fresh provisions. In former days ships were 

 sent out without an adequate supply of food ; and the crew trusted to chance, 

 or what they could kill. When they reached an island they endeavoured to 

 carry oflP all in it ; thus a great deal w^as lost and w^asted. That potent 

 agent, hunger, did the work — man's hunger. 



Unfortunately, no skin remains to display the plumage in any collection. 

 New broomxS in museums sometimes sweep too clean ; and though '' rust and 

 moth do corrupt," they are perhaps less dangerous than indiscriminate zeal. 

 Cambridge appears in former days to have had little opportunity of error, 

 from the state of ornithological poverty in which she existed : '' Vacuus 

 viator," &c. This condition is now happily mended to a great degree by the 

 later generosity of several individuals and the praisew^orthy exertions of the 

 authorities. Her sister Oxford has been accused of a Didine destruction 

 which counts not in the singular but the dual number. 



Jardine says ('Contributions to Ornithology,' p. 124) :—" Mr. Strickland 

 convicts Oxford of having been the grave of two Dodos. In the original 

 autograph diary of Thomas Crossfield, extending from 1626 to 1640 is the 

 following: — ' 1634. Spectacula Oxonii in hoc anno. The story divided into 

 5 or 6 parts, invented by Mr. Gosling, sometime schollar to Mr. Camden, 

 endner, who bestowed the Dodar, a black Indian bird, upon ye Anatomy 

 Schoole, &c.' The Ashmolean Dodo was in Tradescant's private collection 

 at Lambeth, 1666, and was not transferred to Oxford until 1683. Two 



