The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-25
HISTORY OF The DOD0.
The Bird Was Once Found I'm Large
Numbers i'm Mauritius.
Pail Mall Gazette.

Pail Mall Gazette.
l believe there are not few people who
regard the dodo fabulous bird. kind
of ornithic equivalent to the unicorn. Didus
ineptuS, however. though nop extinct, was
at one time to be found ia considerable
numbers upon the island of Nautilus,
which appears to have been its only hab-
itat. great deal of controversy has been
INDUCED in with regard to the origin OF
its name, but there can be little doubt that
1t is derived from the Portuguese doudo "a
cribed the disappearance of the bird The
first mention of the dodo is in narrative,
published in 1901. which describes the voy-
Neck, who is represented as speaking of
birds as big as swans or bigger. with
of a few curly feathers A little later we
near of dodo being sent alive to Holland,
and It Was the foot of this bird. probably,
of Leyden. Pictures of the bird. moreover
are far from rare. At Sion House there is
one by Golemare, dated 1927, and at Prague.
one by Hoefnagel, dated 1926. This latter
is probably that of dodo kept in the vi
skull discovered in 1850 and noM in IN the
Prague museum may also have belonged
to the bird in question. Even as far back
coming very scarce. Emanuel Altman, the
first Englishman who mentions it, says. in
brother: "You shall receive strange fowle
which had at the island Mauritius called
by the Portigualls do do which
will be welcome to you" In sec
ond letter he mentions 1T as being alive.
Nothing is known of the fate of this speci-
men. In a MS. diary kept from 1926 to
1640 by Thomas Crossfelds, of Queens Col
lege Oxford, we hear of Mr.. Costing.
who bestowed the dodar Ga black Indian
bird) upon the anatomy school, This is
not the dodo whose head and foot now
the property Of the university, These rel
les are the remains of a bird seen in London
in the year 1888 by Sir Hamon Lestrange,
who describes a street show where he saw
"a great bird kept in a chamber somewhat
bigger than the largest turkey cock. and
so legged and footed, but shorter and
thicker" In 1851 Francois Cauche de-
scribes the dodos he saw as being bigger
than swans. and having a cry like a
gosing. He tells us how they lay single
white egg 'gros CONNIE un pain dun soP
mass of grass in the forests
In addition to those at Prague and OK
ford. two other remains of the dodo are
still extant-a well-preserved head at Co.
penhagen and n foot in the British Muse
UNI. From the former the affinities Of the
bird were first established. when. in spite
of it's grQtesque rance and lack Of
wings. it founu - elong to the pig
con family. The latter mentioned in
1865 among a Collection of Natural Rari-
ties" as 'elegge of dodo q great heavy
bird that cannot fv.' 1T was bought by
the Royal Society. by which it was given
to the British Museum. This institution
owns. besides, the MS journal of Benjamin
Harry. mate of the ship Berkeley Castle.
in which the latest evidence of a living
dodo is met with. Benjamin Harry ate
dodo In 1851. but its flesh vey hard"
to the existence of the dodo were be-
coming universal. until Duncan refuted
them in 1898. while Clark's discovery of a
considerable number of the birds bones in
the peat of a pool allowed Professor Owen
to completely restore its osseous structure
in