3 68 



REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



Isle of France, where it used to be abundant, if we may believe the 

 testimony of the companions of Vasco de Gama, who visited there 

 in 1497. At the end of the seventeenth century some of them still 

 existed. Former travellers have described them ; and these ac- 

 counts, with skeletons and an oil painting in the British Museum, 

 are the only information which we possess regarding them. 



The Dodo was a fat and heavy bird, and weighed not less than 

 fifty pounds. Its portly body was supported on short legs, provided 



Fig. 147.— The Dodo. 



with ridiculously small wings, making it equally incapable of running 

 or flying, thus dooming the bird to rapid destruction. Lastly and 

 principally, it had a stupid physiognomy, but little calculated to con- 

 ciliate the sympathies of the observer. Its hind parts were decorated 

 with three or four curly feathers, representing a tail, whilst in front it 

 presented an enormous curved bill, which occupied nearly the whole 

 of the head. 



The Dodo did not even possess the merit of being useful after 

 its death, for its flesh was disagreeable and of a bad flavour. On 

 the whole there is not much reason to regret its extinction. 



In the island of Madagascar fossil eggs and bones were found of 

 a bird belonging to a species probably extinct, the proportions of 



