219 
Complaint of the Dodo. 
bird the Dutch call wcdgli-vogel or dod eersen : her body is round and 
fat, which occasions the slow pace or that her corpulencie; and so great 
as few of them weigh less than fifty pound: meat it is with some, 
but better to the eye than stomach ; such as only a strong appetite can 
vanquish: but otherwise, through its oyliness it cannot chuse but 
quickly cloy and nauseate the stomach, being indeed more pleasurable 
to look than feed upon. It is of melancholy visage, as sensible of 
natures injury in framing so massie a body to be directed by com- 
plemental wiDgs, such indeed as are unable to hoise her from the 
ground, serving only to rank her amongst birds : her head is variously 
drest; for one half is hooded with down of a dark colour, the other 
half, naked and of a white hue, as if lawn were drawn over it; her bill 
hooks and bends downwards, the thrill or breathing place is in the 
midst; from which part to the end, the colour is of a light green mixt 
with a pale yellow: her eyes are round and bright, and instead of 
feathers has a most fine down; her train (like to a Chyna [Chinaman’s] 
beard) is no more than three or four short feathers : her leggs are thick 
and black; her tallons great; her stomach fiery, so she can easily 
digest stones; in that and shape not a little resembling the ostrich.” 
( Travels , p. 383, 4th ed.) 
With regard to the culinary properties of the dodo- 
it must be borne in mind that Sir Thomas Herbert was 
somewhat hard to please, and scarcely ever condescended 
to approve of the different dishes that necessity compelled 
him to investigate. 
The Rev. R. Lubbock writes of the 
Capercaillie, or cock of the wood:— 
“ By reclaiming waste lands and draining marshes we gradually lose 
certain species; but by cultivating and planting we either encourage 
or gain others. The greatest achievement is the one lately carried 
through in the Highlands, the complete restoration of the cappercaillie. 
This noble bird was annihilated with the pine forests which sheltered 
him. The mountains were again clothed with wood, and, without 
much trouble,,he was reinstated in his former possessions.” (Fauna of 
Norfolk , 1845, p. 41.) 
According to Sir Thomas Browne, Grouse were un¬ 
known in Norfolk, as was also the Health-poult, by which 
he meant, in all probability, the black grouse. 
