Every reader of popular natural history must recollect the figure of
this extraordinary bird; although he may not be aware that it is
considered to have become extinct towards the end of the seventeenth
or beginning of the eighteenth century. The conditions of this
disappearance are self-evident.[15] Imagine a bird of the gallinaceous
(_gallus_, cock, or pheasant) tribe, considerably larger than a
turkey, and consequently adapted for food, totally incapable of
flying, and so unwieldy as to be easily run down, and it must be quite
obvious that such a bird could not long continue to exist in any
country to which mankind extended their dominion. This will account
for its being found only in those islands of the Indian Ocean which,
on their being first discovered by Europeans, were uninhabited, or
difficult of access to the nearest people. The group which is situated
to the eastward of Madagascar, consisting of Bourbon, Mauritius, and
Roderigue, were almost the only islands of this description met with
by the early circumnavigators of the Cape; and it is there that we
find the last traces of this very remarkable bird, which disappeared,
of course, from Bourbon and the Mauritius _first_, on account of their
being more visited and finally colonized by the French; and lastly
from Roderigue, an island extremely difficult of access, and without
any safe bay or anchorage for shipping.
[15] We are aware that the destruction or total extinction of
any of the species of animals of contemporaneous creation
with man, is a point of much controversy among
philosophers. The best reply to this doubt is the
repeated discovery of the fossil remains of animals
entirely different from the existing species; proving
their extinction to form a part of the scheme of creative
wisdom.
We obtain these particulars from a paper in the _Magazine of Natural
History_,[16] by John V. Thompson, Esq. F.L.S. This gentleman, during
a residence of some years in the above islands, in vain sought for
some traces of the existence of the Dodo there; he discovered,
however, a copy of the scarce and curious voyage of Leguat, who, and
his companions, appear to have been the first inhabitants of
Roderigue: and from their journal he has translated the following
account of the Dodo.
[16] Vol. i. p. 442.
[Illustration: _The Dodo._]
"Of all the birds which inhabit this island, the most remarkable is
that which has been called Solitaire (the solitary), because they are
rarely seen in flocks, although there is abundance of them.
"The _males_ have generally a greyish or brown plumage, the feet of
the turkey-cock, as also the beak, but a little more hooked. They have
hardly any tail, and their posterior, covered with feathers, is
rounded like the croup of a horse. They stand higher than the
turkey-cock, and have a straight neck, a little longer in proportion
than it is in that bird when it raises its head. The eye is black and
lively, and the head without any crest or tuft. They do not fly, their
wings being too short to support the weight of their bodies; they only
use them in beating their sides, and in whirling round; when they wish
to call one another, they make, with rapidity, twenty or thirty rounds
in the same direction, during the space of four or five minutes; the
movement of their wings then makes a noise which approaches
exceedingly that of a kestrel (Crécerelle), and which is heard at more
than 200 paces distant. The bone of the false pinion is enlarged at
its extremity, and forms, under the feathers, a little round mass like
a musket-bullet; this and their beak form the principal defence of
this bird. It is extremely difficult to catch them in the woods; but
as a man runs swifter than they, in the more open spots it is not very
difficult to take them; sometimes they may even be approached very
easily. From the month of March until September, they are extremely
fat, and of most excellent flavour, especially when young. The males
may be found up to the weight of 45 lb.; Herbert even says 50 lb.
"The _female_ is of admirable beauty. Some are of a blond, others of a
brown, colour; I mean by blond the colour of flaxen hair. They have a
kind of band, like the bandeau of widows, above the beak, which is of
a tan colour. One feather does not pass another over all their body,
because they take great care to adjust and polish them with their
beak. The feathers which accompany the thighs are rounded into a
shell-like form, and, as they are very dense at this place, produce a
very agreeable effect. They have two elevations over the crop, of a
somewhat whiter plumage than the rest, and which resemble wonderfully
the fine breast of a woman. They walk with so much stateliness and
grace combined, that it is impossible not to admire and love them; so
much so, that their appearance has often saved their life.
"Although these birds approach, at times, very familiarly when they
are not chased, they are incapable of being tamed; as soon as caught,
they drop tears, without crying, and refuse obstinately all kind of
nourishment, until at last they die. There is always found in their
gizzard (as well as in that of the males) a brown stone, the size of a
hen's egg; it is slightly tuberculated (raboteuse), flat on one side,
and rounded on the other, very heavy and very hard. We imagined that
this stone was born with them, because, however young they might be,
they always had it, and never more than one; and besides this
circumstance, the canal which passes from the crop to the gizzard, is
by one-half too small to give passage to such a mass. We used them, in
preference to any other stone, to sharpen our knives.
"When these birds set about building their nests, they choose a clear
spot, and raise it a foot and a half off the ground, upon a heap of
leaves of the palm tree, which they collect together for the purpose.
They only lay one egg, which is very much larger than that of a goose.
The male and female sit by turns, and it does not hatch until after a
period of seven weeks. During the whole period of incubation, or that
they are rearing their young one, which is not capable of providing
for itself until after several months, they will not suffer any bird
of their own kind to approach within 200 paces of their nest; and what
is very singular is, that the male never chases away the females;
only, when he perceives one, he makes, in whirling, his ordinary
noise, to call his companion, which immediately comes and gives chase
to the stranger, and which she does not quit until driven without
their limits. The female does the same and allows the males to be
driven off by her mate. This is a circumstance that we so often
witnessed, that I speak of it with certainty. These combats last
sometimes for a long time, because the stranger only turns off,
without going in a straight line from the nest; nevertheless, the
others never quit until they have chased them away."[17]
[17] Voyage de François Leguat, Gentilhomme, Bressan, 1708.
Mr. Thompson finds this evidence strengthened by the facts and
statements of a paper by Mr. Duncan, in the _Zoological Journal_ for
January, 1828; and infers that a bird of corresponding size and
character did actually exist, of which the only remains are a bill and
foot in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and a foot in the British
Museum, all of which Mr. Thompson examined on his return from the
Mauritius in 1816. The specimen, which in part remains at Oxford, was
originally in the museum of Tradescant, at Lambeth, which was
purchased and removed to Oxford by Dr. Ashmole; the _entire bird_ is
proved to have been in the Museum in 1700; and in a catalogue of the
collection drawn up since 1755, the disappearance of all but the bill
and foot of the Dodo is explained by an order of a meeting of the
visitors in the last-named year. Tradescant, it will be recollected,
was gardener to Charles the Second; and in the portrait of him still
preserved is introduced a Dodo, which belonged to him when alive.
Another painting of the bird, to be seen in the British Museum, is
stated by Mr. Duncan, to have been executed from a living bird, sent
from the Mauritius to Holland, the Dutch being the first colonists of
that island; but, Mr. Thompson thinks, "to dissipate all doubts as to
its accuracy, it should be collated with a description taken from the
Ashmolean specimen, should such be found to exist."
Mr. Thompson is inclined to consider Leguat's natural history of the
Dodo as "the only one that was ever penned under such favourable
circumstances. No doubt this first colony, in so small an island,
considerably reduced the number of the Dodo; but when they finally
disappeared, does not seem to be anywhere recorded." The most
interesting consideration connected with their disappearance is their
being "the only vertebrated animals which we can make certain of
having lost since the creation. If we seek to find out what link in
the chain of Nature has been broken by the loss of this species, what
others have lost their check, and what others necessarily followed the
loss of those animals which alone contributed to their support," Mr.
Thompson thinks "we may conclude that, the first being seen by the
Omniscient Creator, at least no injury will be sustained by the rest
of the creation; that man, its destroyer, was probably intended to
supplant it, as a check; and that the only other animals which its
destruction drew with it, were the intestinal worms and pediculi
peculiar to the species."
Buffon, Latham, and Gmelin have three species of Dodo, while we find
it difficult to establish the existence of one. Indeed, it is
improbable that the three islands of the Mauritius group possessed
each a distinct type of so singular and unique a bird.
* * * * *