Part 61

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FAMILY DIDIDAE. (L.)

Includes very large and massively-built forms, agreeing with the Columbidae in the truncation of the angle of the mandible, but with the extremity of the cranial rostrum strongly hooked. They were totally incapable of flight, the wing-bones being small, the carina of the sternum aborted, and the caracoidal grooves shallow and separated from one another.

Two genera: Didus and Pezophaps.

DIDUS LINN.

Skull with a very large and deeply hooked rostrum, and the nasal and maxillary processes of the praemaxilla converging anteriorly; the front region inflated into a sub-conical prominence of cancellous tissue. Neck and feet shorter than in the succeeding genus. Delto-pectoral crest of humerus distinct.

Two species: Didus cucullatus and Didus solitarius. {172}

DIDUS CUCULLATUS (L.)

DODO.

(PLATES 24, 24A, 24B, 24C.)

Walchvoghel Van Neck, Voy., p. 7, pl. 2 (1601).

Walchvögel De Bry, Orient. Ind. pt. VIII, t. 11 (1606).

Gallinaceus gallus peregrinus Clusius, Exot. Libr. V p. 99 t. 100 (1605).

Dod-eersen or Valgh-vogel Herbert's travels 1st ed. (1634) t. page 212.

Cygnus cucullatus Nieremberg, Nat p. 231 (with fig. ex. Clus.) (1635).

Dronte Bontius, Ind. Orient t. p. 70 (1658).

Raphus Moehring, Av. gen. 57 (1752).

Dodo Edwards, Glean. Nat Hist. III p. 179 pl. 296 (1757).

Struthio cucullatus Linn., S. N. I p. 155 No. 4 (1758).

Didus ineptus Linn., S. N. I p. 267 No. 1 (1766).

The first description of this very remarkable bird was given in the account of the voyage of Admiral Jacob van Neck in 1598, which was published by Corneille Nicolas at Amsterdam in 1601. It is as follows:--"Blue parrots are very numerous there, as well as other birds; among which are a kind, conspicuous for their size, larger than our swans, with huge heads only half covered with skin as if clothed with a hood. These birds lack wings, in the place of which 3 or 4 blackish feathers protrude. The tail consists of a few soft incurved feathers, which are ash coloured. These we used to call 'Walghvögel,' for the reason that the longer and oftener they were cooked, the less soft and more insipid eating they became. Nevertheless their belly and breast were of a pleasant flavour and easily masticated."

In a large number of works on travel and voyages published in the 17th and 18th Centuries we find all sorts of notices about the Dodo, and numerous pictures of which I have given outline drawings. From these sources it appears that the Dodo became extinct about the end of the 17th Century, i.e., 1680-1690. The causes of the extermination of this, perhaps the best known and most talked about of the recently extinct birds, are not far to seek. The total inability of flight, the heavy slow gait, and the utter fearlessness from long immunity from enemies, led to a continual slaughter for food by the sailors and others who came to and dwelt on Mauritius. But the final cause of the extermination of this and many other birds in the Mascarene Islands was probably the introduction of pigs, and also of the Ceylon Monkey. These animals increased enormously in numbers, ran wild in the woods, and soon destroyed all the eggs and young birds they could find. {173}

It is strange that for many years after great attention had been paid to the Dodo, ornithologists differed conspicuously as to what family it and the other two Didine species belonged. Many asserted that it was a Struthious bird, in fact Linnaeus called it calmly Struthio cucullatus, while others just as forcibly declared it to be an abnormal Vulture. The truth is, that although the Didunculus strigirostis of Samoa, which was supposed to be its near representative, is not at all closely allied, yet the two species of Didus and Pezophaps solitarius form a group of very specialized pigeons.

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE PAINTINGS REPRESENTING THE DODO.

1. Vienna, in the Library of the Emperor Francis. By Hufnagel, 1626, reproduced by von Frauenfeldt in his book, 1868.

2. Berlin. "Altes Museum," Cabinet 3, Division 2, No. 710. By Roelandt Savery, 1626.

3. Sion House. Duke of Northumberland. By John Goeimare, 1627.

4. Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum, formerly Belvedere. By Roelandt Savery, 1628