374 dodo. 



collection at South Lambeth.* In a late history of Mauritius, f we 

 are told, that it is no longer found there, or in Bourbon, Rodriguez, 

 or Sechelles ; and must now be placed among those species which 

 once existed, but have been destroyed, by the facility with which it 

 could be effected. No hope, therefore, can now be entertained of 

 finding them, but on the shores of uninhabited Islands. Leguat 

 calls this bird the Giant ; and in the narrative of M. du Quesne, he 

 talks of the Giant, and the Dodo, as large birds, of an extraordinary 

 height, which frequent the rivers and lakes ; and whose flesh is like 

 that of the Bittern. 



2— SOLITARY DODO. 



Didus solitarius, Ind. Orn. ii. p. 3. Gin. Lin. i. 728. 



Le Solitaire, Bitf. i. 485. Leguat, Voy. i. 98. pi. in ditto. 



Solitary Dodo, Gen. Syn. v. p. 3. 



THIS is described as a large bird, and the male to weigh some- 

 times forty-five pounds. The bill and legs like those of a Turkey ; 

 but the bill more bent, and the bird standing higher on the legs : 

 the neck of a proportionable length ; the eye black and lively ; head 

 not crested, and the general colour of the plumage grey and brown 

 mixed ; it has scarce any tail ; and the bastard wing swells out into 

 a round knob; the wings too short for flight, and the hind parts 

 rounded like a horse's rump, being clothed with feathers, which may 

 be called coverts. 



f Called in his catalogue " Dodar, from the Island of Mauritius; it is not able to flie 

 " being so big."— See p. 4. 



X First called Cerne, or Swan Island, before the Dutch took possession in 1698, as the 

 sailors found there a great number of white Fowls, without tails, which on that account 

 they took to be Swans. It should seem that these could be no other than our Dodo; and 

 if they are now extinct, it is no wonder, since their extreme difficulty of moving from place 

 to place, must have rendered them an easy prey to any one. Some think, however, that by 

 Cerne was meant Madagascar, and if so, and the Island being more than 1000 miles long, 

 and about 300 broad, it is possible that the Dodo may yet exist there. 



