186 



ON THE TOTAL AND PARTIAL 



state, to the museums of different countries., in none of which, at the 

 present day, does one perfect specimen exist, that the destruction of 

 the species must have been carried on so quickly that its eventual 

 extinction was not anticipated. With the exception of the specimen 

 once contained in the museum of Tradescant at Lambeth, and which is 

 said to have been transferred by Dr. Ashmole to the Ashmolean 

 Museum of Oxford, in which it is recorded to have remained until 

 1755 (at which period it was destroyed on account of its having become 

 decayed), no entire specimen appears ever to have found a place in the 

 Cabinet of the naturalists. The only remains ascertained now to exist 

 of this creature are in the Ashmolean Museum, which contains a bill 

 and leg of the Tradescant specimen ; in the British Museum, which 

 contains a single foot, once belonging to the collection of the Royal 

 Society ; and, lastly, in the Paris Museum, which is enriched by the 

 possession of, according to Mr. Lyell, "the head, sternum, and humerus 

 of the dodo," sent thither amongst some fossil bones discovered under 

 a bed of lava in the Isle of France. A disparity has been observed 

 between the size and length of the foot in the British Museum and 

 that in the Ashmolean Museum, — which observation has induced some 

 to suspect that this country must have either contained two different 

 specimens, or else one whole specimen, and only the leg of another. If 

 the latter suspicion be correct, then the difficult question presents itself, 

 whether this disparity is to be ascribed to a difference of age, sex, or 

 species. The accounts given by various writers are so dissimilar, that, 

 assuming them to be correct, one might indeed suspect that more than 

 =one species of dodo existed. 



Since the disappearance of the dodo, some other creatures of smaller 

 size have become extinct, probably in consequence of the scarcity or 

 complete eradication of those wild plants that constitute their food. 

 To what other cause can we refer the loss of our Hampstead butterfly* 

 {Vanessa Hampstediensis), which has not been seen for upwards of a 

 century; our scarce swallow- tailed butterfly (Papilio podalirius) , 

 which has not been seen since the time of Ray ; and, our straw 

 May-fritilary butterfly, which has not been seen since the time 

 of Petiver? It is not difficult to imagine that the loss of a few 

 species of weeds may have produced all this destruction of animal life, 

 for we well know that some animals are so restricted in their diet 



* Vide Stephens's Illustrations of British Entomology, vol. i. page 5, for figures 

 *nrl further information respecting this species.-- J. F. 



