Part 63

No. 7. Outline of Dodo in Sir Thomas Herbert's Relation of some yeares Travels, 1626.

No. 8. Outline of Dodo in Clusius Exoticorum libri decem, 1605.

No. 9. Outline of Dodo in Joan Nievhof's Gedenkwaerdige Zee and Lantreize, 1682.

No. 10. Outline of Dodo in John Goeimare's picture at Sion House, 1627. Vide antea No. 3 in the List of Paintings.

No. 11. Outline of Dodo in Roelandt Savery's picture at Pommersfelden. Vide antea No. 6 in the List of Paintings.

No. 12. Outline of Dr. H. Schlegel's restoration of the Dodo in Transactions, &c., of the Amsterdam Academy, vol. 2, 1854.

No. 13. Outline of Dodo in Roelandt Savery's picture, Zoological Society, London. Vide antea No. 5 in the List of Paintings.

{175}

DIDUS SOLITARIUS (SELYS).

RÉUNION DODO.

(PLATES 25, 25A, 25B.)

Great Fowl Tatton, Voy. Castleton, Purchas his Pilgrimes, ed. (1625) I p. 331 (Bourbon or Réunion).

Dod-eersen Bontekoe, Journ. ofte gedenck. beschr. van de Ost. Ind. Reyse Haarlem (1646) p. 6.

Oiseau Solitaire Carré, Voy. Ind. Or. I p. 12 (1699).

Solitaire Voy. fait par Le Sieur D.B. (1674) p. 170.

Apterornis solitarius de Selys, Rev. Zool (1848) p. 293.

Didus apterornis Schlegel, Ook een Wordje over den Dodo p. 15 f. 2 (1854).

Pezophaps borbonica Bp., Consp. Av. II p. 2 (1854).

Ornithaptera borbonica Bp., Consp. Av. II. p. 2 (1854).

Didine Bird of the Island of Bourbon (Réunion) A. Newt. Tr. Zool. Soc. VI pp. 373-376, pl. 62 (1867).

Apterornis solitaria Milne-Edw., Ibis (1869) p. 272.

? Didus borbonica Schleg., Mus. P.B. Struthiones p. 3 (1873).

Solitaire of Réunion A. Newton, Enc. Brit. II p. 732 (1875).

The Didine bird of Réunion was first mentioned by Mr. Tatton, the Chief Officer of Captain Castleton, in his account of their voyage given in Purchas his Pilgrimes. His account is as follows:--

"There is store of land fowle both small and great, plenty of Doves, great Parrats, and such like; and a great fowle of the bignesse of a Turkie, very fat, and so short winged, that they cannot fly, being white, and in a manner tame: and so be all other fowles, as having not been troubled nor feared with shot. Our men did beat them down with sticks and stones. Ten men may take fowle enough to serve fortie men a day."

We then find frequent mention of this bird by Bontekoe in 5 separate treatises or editions, from 1646 to 1650, and by Carré in 1699. But the first more detailed description is given by the Sieur D.B. (Dubois) in 1674, which is as follows:--

"Solitaires. These birds are thus named because they always go alone. They are as big as a big goose and have white plumage, black at the extremity of the wings and of the tail. At the tail there are some feathers resembling those of the Ostrich. They have the neck long and the beak formed like that of the Woodcocks (he refers to the woodrails, Erythromachus--W.R.), but larger, and the legs and feet like those of Turkey-chicks. This bird betakes itself to running, only flying but very little. It is the best game on the Island." {176}

It will be seen that, while Dubois says the wings and tail are black, Pierre Witthoos's picture, from which the accompanying plate was partly drawn, shows the wings yellow. This may either be due to Dubois' faulty description, or, what is much more probable, the bird brought to Amsterdam, which Witthoos painted, was somewhat albinistic. The bill in the picture by Witthoos shows a distinctly mutilated bill, evidently done by the bird's keeper to prevent being injured by the formidable hook of the untrimmed bill. In addition to two pictures (the one formerly in the possession of Mr. C. Dare, of Clatterford, in the Isle of Wight, and a second in Holland, both by Pieter Witthoos, painted about the year 1670), we know of this bird only the drawing given in Zaagman's edition of Bontekoe, 1646. In all these drawings the first four primaries point down and forward, which is probably owing to the injured condition of the specimen figured, so in the accompanying plate I had the wing drawn like the true Dodo's and the bill reconstructed.