ON 
THE DODO 
QDidus ineptus, Linn.). 
§ 1. Historical Introduction. 
The dodo has long been one of the “ Curiosities of Natural History,” through the 
singularity of its recorded shape, and the paucity of the material evidences of the bird. 
The head and foot in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the foot in the British 
Museum, were all the parts of the bird known to the author of the admirable article 
“ Dodo at the date of its publication in the ‘ Penny Cyclopaedia’'. 
The history of the bird to that date is so conscientiously and exhaustively worked 
out by my lamented friend, that, instead of paraphrasing or amplifying it, I here give 
it in Mr. Broderip’s own words. 
“ Written and Pictorial Evidence.— In the voyage to the East Indies, in 1598, by 
Jacob Van Neck and Wybrand van Warwijk (small 4to, Amsterdam, 1648), there is a 
description of the Walgh-vogels in the Island of Cerne, now called Mauritius, as being 
as large as our swans, with large heads, and a kind of hood thereon ; no wings, but, 
in place of them, three or four black little pens (pennekens), and their tails consisting 
of four or five curled plumelets (pluymkens) of a greyish colour. The breast is spoken 
of as very good, but it is stated that the voyagers preferred some Turtle-doves that they 
found there. The bird appears with a tortoise near it (fig. 1), in a small engraving, one 
of six which form the prefixed plate. 
“In the frontispiece to De Bry (Quinta Pars Indise Orientalis, &c., M.DCI.), sur- 
mounting the architectural design of the titlepage, will be found, we believe’ the 
earliest engravings of the Dodo. A pair of these birds stand on the cornice on each 
side, and the following cut (fig. 2) is taken from the figure on the left hand. 
Tortoise and tValgh- 
vogel, of the Mauri- 
tius (Van Neck and 
Wybrand, 1598). 
Nrom plate 2 of 
Van Neck’s Voy- 
age. 
Fig. 2. 
’ By William John Beodeeip, Esq., F.E.S. The part containing the article was published in 1836, the 
volume (ix.) appeared m 1837. 
B 
