dodo. 373 



the upper mandible, which is yellowish, and a red spot on the bend 

 of it ; end of the lower blackish ; irides white, bright, and shining ; 

 the general colour of the plumage is cinereous, and soft to the touch ; 

 belly and thighs whitish ; the head large, and covered with a sort of 

 cowl or hood, composed of short black feathers ; the wings are very 

 short, and of a yellowish ash-colour; end of the coverts black , tail 

 feathers curled, standing up on the rump, and incline to yellow, like 

 the wings ; the legs are very stout, short, and yellowish ; the claws 

 black. This account agrees with a painting of the bird in the 

 British Museum. 



Herbert, in his Travels, describes this bird, as having seen it, 

 though his figure is a bad one. He says, " It seldom weighs less 

 " than fifty pounds ; that the pace is slow, and the body round and 

 " fat ; by some eaten as meat, but is more pleasant to look, than 

 " feed upon ; and the stomach so fiery, that it can digest stones; in 

 " that, and shape, not a little resembling the Ostrich." 



This awkward figure is said to inhabit the Island of Mauritius, 

 and that of Bourbon,* in the Indian Ocean. 



The picture, above mentioned, was copied by the late Mr. 

 Edwards, from one drawn from a living bird, brought from Saint 

 Maurice's Island. Dr. Grew, who mentions the leg of one, among 

 other treasures of the British Museum, sufficiently describes this 

 part ; but we owe the figure of it to Dr. Shaw, being the identical 

 one mentioned by Dr. Grew; and this gentleman has also favoured 

 the world with an engraving of the head, which, with another leg 

 of the same, is now to be seen in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford; 

 but it is probable, that a specimen of the whole bird was in the 

 Museum of John Tradescant, as such an one is recorded under the 

 name of Dodar, as composing part of that gentleman's curious 



* These birds must have been imported into the above Islands from elsewhere, as it is 

 said that the Portuguese, who first discovered them, found neither land bird nor quadruped 

 in either. Mem. de M. Commerson, — Hist, des Ois. V. p. 280. 



