I 7. THE DODO. 131 



family, larger than a turkey, of a dun colour on the back, 

 and marked on the breast like a cock pheasant ; it abounded 

 in the Mauritius and adjacent islands. When those coun- 

 tries were first colonized by the Dutch, about two centuries 

 ago, the Dodo formed the principal food of the inhabitants; 



Ligx. 17.— The Dodo. 

 (From a Painting in the British Museum.) 



but as it unfortunately proved to be incapable of domesti- 

 cation, its numbers were soon diminished, and the species 

 insensibly disappeared. A live Dodo was exhibited in 

 London in 1638 as a great curiosity ; and stuffed specimens 

 were preserved in the various museums of Europe: paint- 

 ings of the living animal are still extant in the Ashmolean 

 Museum at Oxford, and in the British Museum (see 

 Lign, 17). But the Dodo is now extinct; it is no longer 

 to be found in the isles where it once flourished, and even 

 all the stuffed specimens are destroyed. The only known 

 relics that remain, are the head and foot of an individual 

 in the Ashmolean, the leg of another in the British Museum, 

 and a skull in the museiun at Copenhagen. To render this 



k 2 



