Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-07-02
The Hermit Bird.

Francis Lcguat, flying from France,
with IL Protestant party, came in 1851
to the island of Rodriguez, till then
uncxplorrd, and lived there two years.
The story of our comlmtriot's "Trlvcls
and adventures" has been publisllcd;
We find in it the description Of the fine
bird called by him the hermit (Ifzop-
hu,,s soIifnri"*). OF all tho birds in
Rodriguez island, Leguat says this is
the most remarkable species. The
males arc vuriously fcatllcrcd with gray
and brown, with tho feet of IL turkey,
and the bill shaped like the turkeys
also, but little moro hooked. They
nrc almost t,illcss, and their rump is
rounded and covered with feathers,
higher on the legs than tho turkey;
they have straight and rather long
neck, black, sparkling eye, and u
head without crest or tuft. Tho fc-
male, our traveller says, is admirably
beautiful; there arc blondes and bru
ncttrs among them, marked ON the fore
head with strip like widows band,
anil on the breast with plumago whittier
than the rest of the body. They walk
with such Il minglilg of pride and
graccflllness that one cannot avoid al
niring and loving them, SO that their
good looks often save their lives. Not
II feather lies uneven on their whole
body, snch pains do they take to
smooth and arrange their plllmrgc with
their bills. These hermit birds do not
fly; they only use their wings, which
are too small to bear tho weight Of the
body, either in fighting or drumming
when calling each other. Legrat adds
that they are taken with great difficulty
in the woods; but in open places it is
easy to run them down, as they arc not
very swift. From March to September
they arc extremely fit, and tho
taste, especially Of the young
ones, excellent. Some among the
males arc found weighing forty five
pounds. These birds, intending to
build II nest, choose a clear spot, col
lcct few palm leaves, and raise the
structure foot and IL half above the
surface; they hatch but ono egg at a
time, and the male and female sit alter
natcly during seven weeks, the period Of
incubation, and for some months longer
the young bird needs assistance from
the old ones. These beautiful birds of
Rodriguez, called hcrmits because they
seldom go in hocks, were abundant in
the island at the end of the seventeenth
century, when tho French naturalist OK
pressed such admiration for them. In
a few years they have all persisted, and
nothing but bones crushed with stalag-
mite permitted us to ascertain that the
species described by Lcguat was of u
kind unknown elsewhere, when an Eng
lish explorer, Newton, undertook to OK
anime the caves and DOGGY lands of the
small island Of Rodriguez. More than
two thousand fragments, the last traces
of the extinct bird, wero collected. The
study of these wretched relics was made
with the greatest care, and we now
know that the hermit-bird represented
special type, having close a11initics
with the dodo and the pigeon A sin.
g'llar detail leads us to place full reli.
ancc on Lcguat's observations. Gu,
traveller had said, in speaking of the
males of this Rodriguez bird: "The
wing of the pinion tlickcns at its end,
and forms u little round mass like a
muskct-ba]l under tho feathers; this,
with the bill, is the bird Is chief defense. >
This little round mass has been found
in the shape OF a bony prominence OH
that part of the limb called the metacar.
DllS.