3 6 ° 
FEATHERED FORMS OF OTHER DAYS. 
THE PALAPTERYX. 
(FROM A DRAWING BY R. W SHUFELDT.) 
Upon the only skull of this bird that 
was at one time known in Europe, the as- 
tute Danish naturalist, Professor Reinhardt, 
clearly showed the dodo’s re- 
lation to the great family of 
pigeons ; and although this in- 
vestigator’s decision was made 
upon such meager material, the 
discovery of many additional 
remains since has been upon 
careful examination unable to 
shake it. The dodo was a bird 
about the size of a large swan, 
blackish-gray in color, and 
flightless, having only rudi- 
mentary wings and tail ; but his 
most distinctive external char- 
acteristic was a beautiful col- 
lection of white plumes, that 
grew, as we see them in the 
engraving, in a’ bunch over 
the rump. From all accounts 
the dodo laid only a single 
egg, and never constructed 
a nest, simply depositing its 
treasure in some grassy spot 
in the forest or other convenient 
locality. 
These birds were by no means 
uncommon on the island of Mauri- 
tius and the off-lying one of Bour- 
bon when the seafaring Mascaren- 
has brought his Portuguese explorers 
to the former in 1598; but in less 
than a century’s time the fate of the 
dodo was sealed, and the last living 
one disappeared in that short period 
before the merciless advance of man, 
his domesticated animals, and all 
that follow in his train. It would be 
difficult to conceive of a being whose 
surrounding circumstances, added to 
its own feeble resources of defense, 
were better combined to insure its 
certain extirpation : living on an 
island, which it was unable to leave 
by resorting to flight or by swim- 
ming in the sea ; conspicuous by its 
size ; fairly good food ; and awkward 
and stupid, for its very name is de- 
rived from a Portuguese one mean- 
ing a simpleton. The Mascarene 
Islands had never been the home 
of man until the period above men- 
tioned, and we may safely assert that 
no such form would have developed 
as his contemporary. We shall see 
what the fate of the gare-fowl, or great 
auk, has been under somewhat sim- 
ilar conditions, farther on ; but in 
that case the bird had the great ad- 
vantage of being perfectly at home in the 
water, and so able to go to many unfrequented 
spots, and often thereby escape death. 
THE DODO. 
. (FROM A DRAWING BY R. W. SHUFELDT.) 
