Lincoln's Inn.
{83}
_The Dodo._--Among the seals, or rather sulphur casts, in the British
Museum, is one of Nicholas Saumares, anno 1400. It represents an esquire's
helmet, from which depends obliquely a shield with the
arms--supporters--dexter a unicorn, sinister a greyhound; crest, a bird,
which from its unwieldy body and disproportionate wings I take to be a
Dodo: and the more probability attaches itself to this conjecture, since
_Dodo_ seems to have been the surname of the Counts de Somery, or Somerie
(query Saumarez), as mentioned in p. 2. of Add. MSS. 17,455. in the British
Museum, and alluded to in a former No. of "N. & Q." This seal, like many
others, is not in such a state of preservation as to warrant the assertion
that we have found a veritable Dodo. I only offer it as a hint to MR.
STRICKLAND and others, that have written so learnedly on this head. Burke
gives a falcon for the crest of Saumarez; but the clumsy form and figure of
this bird does not in any way assimilate with any of the falcon tribe.
Dodo seems also to have been used as a Christian name, as in the same
volume of MSS. quoted above we find Dodo de Cisuris, &c.