130 
LITTLE FOLKS 
SOME DROLL BIRDS. 
Look at this picture well, for you'll never see a living bird like 
it. It belongs to the extinct races — which means that there are 
no more to be found. I'm sure it's no great loss to the world, for 
such a dumpy, fat, awkward creature seems like a monstrosity after 
reading about humming birds and birds of paradise. 
The great interest felt by the scientific world in this bird is 
caused by the fact that there are none to be found alive now — as I 
said, and of course we must have his portrait among our droll 
birds. 
He was — when alive — a native of the Mauritius Islands, and 
lie was in the habit of weighing from forty to fifty pounds. He 
was a slow, stupid sort of a fellow, and would stand still to be 
knocked down by a stick. Probably that's the reason he's extinct, 
by the way, for of course everybody would delight to knock down 
such an accommodating fellow. 
Now, who would think he belonged to. the pigeon family? no 
one but a naturalist, I'm sure. But of course they know, because 
they do not judge by the outside — they go clear through to the 
