341 



at the Hague (No. 139), verifies the later oil-painting by Edwards, which 

 is preserved in the British Museum*, and confirms the accuracy of the 

 original woodcuts published by De Bry-f-, Clusius J, Herbert §, and 

 Bontius ||, in their respective works, so far as regards the struthious pro- 

 portions of the wings and the gallinaceous structure of the legs and feet . 

 both the rudimental wings and the tail were ornamented with loose 

 plumes in the Dodo as in the Ostrich. 



The original of the present cast is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum 

 in the University of Oxford. It was the head of a stuffed specimen of 

 Dodo originally in the collection of rarities belonging to John Trades- 

 cant, and was transferred with that collection to Dr. Elins Ashmole in 

 1674, and subsequently, by the munificence of Ashmole, to the Univer- 

 sity of Oxford. This specimen, No. 29 of Ashmole's catalogue, with 

 others from No. 5 to No. 46 inclusive, " being decayed, were ordered to 

 be removed at a meeting of the majority of the visitors, Jan. 8, 1755 :" 

 the skin was burnt, but the head and one foot were preserved. 



The head alone yields evidence of a species of bird differing from any 

 now known to exist. The cere or naked skin which invests the base of 

 the bill is an example of a more extensive development of a structure 

 present in the Apteryx, Rhea and Ostrich, as well as in the Raptorial 

 birds. The nostrils, by their advanced position, repeat the characters 

 of those of the Rhea ; and in the figures of the recent bird they are 

 represented as being defended by an overarching scale,, as in the Rhea 

 and the Gallinaceous birds The sudden elevation of the forehead 

 is a character which is most nearly repeated by the Apteryx, and is not 

 manifested by any raptorial or short- winged aquatic bird : and the Dodo 

 approaches nearest to the Apteryx in the great breadth of the cranium 

 and the small size of the orbits and eyes. When the great diversity in 

 the shape of the beak in the existing birds of the Struthious Order is 



* This is a copy, made in 1760, from "an original picture drawn in Holland from the living bird 

 brought from St. Maurice's Island in the East Indies, in the early times of the discovery of the Indies 

 by the way of the Cape of Good Hope." See the excellent Article Dodo, in the Penny Cyclopaedia. 



f Quinta pars Indise Orientalis, MDCI. 



J Exotica, 1605. § Travels, 1634. H Hist. Nat. et Med. 1658. 



