"On y trouve des oiseaux appelez _Flamans_, qui excedent la
hauteur d'un grand homme."
Qu. 6. I know not whether Mr. S. is aware that there is the head of a
Dodo in the Royal Museum of Natural History at Copenhagen, which came
from the collection of Paludanus? M. Domeny de Rienzi, the compiler of
_Océanie, ou cinquième Partie du Globe_ (1838, t. iii. p. 384.), tells
us, that a Javanese captain gave him part of a _Dronte_, which he
unfortunately lost on being shipwrecked; but he forgot where he said
he obtained it.
Qu. 7. _Dodo_ is most probably the name given at first to the bird by
the Portuguese; _Doudo_, in that language, being a fool or _lumpish_
stupid person. And, besides that name, it bore that of _Tölpel_ in
German, which has the same signification. The _Dod-aers_ of the Dutch
is most probably a vulgar epithet of the Dutch sailors, expressive of
its _lumpish_ conformation and inactivity. Our sailors would possibly
have substituted heavy-a----. I find the Dodo was also called the
_Monk-swan_ of St. Maurice's Island at the commencement of last
century. The word _Dronte_ is apparently neither Portugese nor
Spanish, though in Connelly's _Dictionary_ of the latter language
we have--
"_Dronte_, cierto páxaro de Indias de alas muy cortas--an
appellation given by some to the Dodo."
It seems to me to be connected with _Drone_; but this can only be
ascertained from the period and the people by whom it was applied.
That the bird once existed there can be no doubt, from the notice
of Sir Hamon L'Estrange, which there is no reason for questioning;
and there seems to be as little reason to suppose that Tradescant's
stuffed specimen was a fabrication. He used to preserve his own
specimens; and there could be no motive at that period for a
fabrication. I had hoped to have found some notice of it in the
_Diary_ of that worthy virtuoso Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, who
visited the Ashmolean Museum in 1710; but though he notices other
natural curiosities, there is no mention of it. This worthy remarks on
the slovenly condition and inadequate superintendence of our museums,
and especially of that of Gresham College; but those who recollect
the state of our great national museum forty years since will not be
surprised at this, or at the calamitous destruction of Tradescant's
specimen of the Dodo. That the bird was extinct above 150 years ago I
think we may conclude from the notices I have extracted from La Roque,
and the letter of the Jesuit Brown. Mr. Strickland has done good
service to the cause of natural science by his monograph of this very
curious subject; and to him every particle of information must be
acceptable: this must be my excuse for the almost nothing I have been
able to contribute.