* will obftinately ‘refufe food, and die of hunger 
v 













ha {har 
(oa 
ox 
544 THE NATURAL HISTORY 
Though this fpecies of the Dodo be in great. 
numbers, yet they are never feen in ‘flocks, os. 
feldom indeed more than two together, f 
They feek for retired fituations for breeding; — 
they make their nefts of the leaves of palm trees, 
heaped together. about a foot and an half above 
the ground; in this neft the female lays but one 
egg, which is larger than the egg of a goote. ; 
Whilft the is fitting, or has the care of her — 
young, they fuffer no other bird to approach the 
nett. 
The egg is feven weeks in hatching, and itis — 
feveral months before the young Solitary Dodo is” 
able to take care of itfelf. The parents never 
feparate from one another. ae) 
A ftone is found in its gizzard, as in the 
Dodo’s. i 
The Solitary Dodo never can be tamed, though 
it is not fo wild but that it will fuffer itfelf to be 
taken. It is faid, that in the woods, though it be 
not fwift, it efcapes frequently from its purfuers, 
by hiding itfelf, or by fome artifice or other; onthe — 
plains it is foon overtaken. When it is caught fome- 
people have declared, that it theds tears, though — 
it does not make any noife; and fometimes it 
oh 
The 
Fd 
and vexation, 
ae 
