86 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Incapable of flight or defence. 



on all the upper part of the body and the legs, 

 and lighter on the breast, belly, and the whole 

 under part of the body. The feathers of the 

 wings are variegated with yellow and white, as 

 are likewise those of the tail, which appear to 

 be curled, and are very few in number. Clusius 

 reckons only four or five. The feet and toes are 

 yellow, and the nails black. Each foot has four 

 toes, three before and one behind, and the claw 

 of the latter is considerably the longest. 



Bulk, which in the generality of animals im- 

 plies strength j in the dronte contributes only to 

 inactivity. The ostrich and the cassowary are 

 no more able to fly than the dronte, but they 

 supply that defect by their speed in running. This 

 bird, on the contrary, appears to be oppressed 

 by its own weight, and scarcely able to urge it- 

 self forward. It seems among birds what the 

 sloth is among quadrupeds, an unresisting ani- 

 mal, equally incapable of flight or defence. It 

 is furnished with wings covered with soft ash- 

 coloured feathers, but they are too short and too 

 weak to assist it in flying : it has a tail, but this 

 tail is disproportioned and misplaced. 



This bird is a native of the isle of France ; and 

 the Dutch, by whom it was first discovered 

 there, called it in their language the nauseous 

 bird, both on account of its disgusting figure and 

 the bad taste of its flesh. Succeeding observers, 

 however, contradict this report, and assert that 

 its flesh is good and, wholesome eating. 



