DIDIDAE 



329 



The huge blackish bill terminated in a large horny hook, the 

 cheeks were partly bare, the short yellow legs were stout, scaly, and 

 feathered on the upper portion ; the plumage was dark ash-coloured, 

 with whitish breast and tail, yellowish-white wings, and black 

 tips to their coverts. The short rectrices formed a curled tuft, 

 and the first four primaries were directed backwards. 



This uncouth and unwieldy species, of which a full account 

 will be found in the works mentioned below,^ which have been 

 largely utilized here, was noticed as early as 1598 by the Dutch, 



Fig. 66. — Dodo. Didus ineptws. (After Savery's Vienna picture. ) 



who called it Walghvogel, or Nauseous Bird, from their dislike of 

 its flesh, and the island, where it was then found abundantly, 

 Mauritius. The earliest representation was given in 1601 by 

 De Bry, who stated that an example was brought alive to Holland. 

 Other Dutch fleets subsequently visited the island, and several 

 sketches of the Dodo were made, while one of the captains records 

 that it was indifferently called Dodaars or Dronte. Eoelandt 

 Savery of Courtrai (1576-1639) painted the Dodo — probably 

 from life — -more than once, pictures by him still existing in 



' Strickland and Melville, Tlie Dodo and Us Kindred, Loudon, 1848 ; A. 

 Newton, Diet. Birds, 1893, pp. 155-161, 215, 216 ; E. Newton and H. Gadow, Tr. 

 Zool. Soc. Londm, xiii. 1893, pp. 281-302. 



