Memoir on the Dodo (didus Ineptus, Linn.)

Part 1

R Savary pinx. M&N Hanhart. imp. J Erxleben lith

DIDUS.]

MEMOIR ON THE DODO

(Didus ineptus, +Linn.+).

BY RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S.,

WITH AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

BY THE LATE WILLIAM JOHN BRODERIP, F.R.S.

LONDON: PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 1866.

THE HON. ADOLPHUS F. O. LIDDELL, Q.C.

+My dear Neighbour+,

If our accomplished and lamented friend, Mr. +Broderip+, had been spared to see the evidences of the extinct bird of the Mauritius described in the following pages, he would probably have taken a more direct share in the present work, and he certainly would have felt equal pleasure with myself in inscribing it to you, in whose society we so often enjoyed pleasant and instructive discourse in the sylvan walks and tranquil shades of Sheen.

Believe me, Very sincerely yours, RICHARD OWEN.

Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park, August 1866.

CONTENTS.

Page

§ 1. Historical Introduction 1

§ 2. Description of the Skeleton 21

Vertebræ 22

Ribs 25

Pelvis 27

Sternum 29

Scapular Arch 31

Bones of the Wing 32

Bones of the Leg 33

Skull 35

§ 3. Comparison of the Skeleton 41

§ 4. Conclusion 49

ON THE DODO (Didus ineptus, +Linn.+).

Part 2

§ 1. Historical Introduction.

The Dodo has long been one of the “Curiosities of Natural History,” through the singularity of its recorded shape, and the paucity of the material evidences of the bird. The head and foot in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the foot in the British Museum, were all the parts of the bird known to the author of the admirable article “+Dodo+” at the date of its publication in the ‘Penny Cyclopædia’.

The history of the bird to that date is so conscientiously and exhaustively worked out by my lamented friend, that, instead of paraphrasing or amplifying it, I here give it in Mr. Broderip’s own words.

“Written and Pictorial Evidence.—In the voyage to the East Indies, in 1598, by Jacob Van Neck and Wybrand van Warwijk (small 4to, Amsterdam, 1648), there is a description of the Walgh-vogels in the Island of Cerne, now called Mauritius, as being as large as our swans, with large heads, and a kind of hood thereon; no wings, but, in place of them, three or four black little pens (pennekens), and their tails consisting of four or five curled plumelets (pluymkens) of a greyish colour. The breast is spoken of as very good, but it is stated that the voyagers preferred some Turtle-doves that they found there. The bird appears with a tortoise near it (fig. 1), in a small engraving, one of six which form the prefixed plate.

“In the frontispiece to De Bry (Quinta Pars Indiæ Orientalis, &c., M.DCI.), surmounting the architectural design of the titlepage, will be found, we believe, the earliest engravings of the Dodo. A pair of these birds stand on the cornice on each side, and the following cut (fig. 2) is taken from the figure on the left hand.

Tortoise and Walgh-vogel, of the Mauritius (Van Neck and Wybrand, 1598). From plate 2 of Van Neck’s Voyage.

Fig. 2.

Dodo (De Bry, 1601).]

“In De Bry’s ‘Descriptio Insulæ Do Cerne a nobis Mauritius dictæ’ is the following account:—‘Cærulean Parrots also are there in great numbers, as well as other birds; besides which there is another larger kind, greater than our swans, with vast heads, and one half covered with a skin, as it were, hooded. These birds are without wings, in the place of which are three or four rather black feathers (quarum loco tres quatuorve pennæ nigriores prodeunt). A few curved delicate ash-coloured feathers constitute the tail. These birds we called Walck-Vögel, because the longer they were cooked the more unfit for food they became (quod quo longius seu diutius elixarentur, plus lentescerent et esui ineptiores fierent). Their bellies and breasts were nevertheless of a pleasant flavour (saporis jucundi) and easy of mastication. Another cause for the appellation we gave them was the preferable abundance of Turtle-doves which were of a far sweeter and more grateful flavour.’ It will be observed that the bill in De Bry’s figure is comparatively small.

“Clusius, in his ‘Exotica’ (1605), gives a figure, here copied” (note ¹, p. 4), “which, he says, he takes from a rough sketch in a journal of a Dutch voyager who had seen the bird in a voyage to the Moluccas in the year 1598.

“The following is Willughby’s translation of Clusius, and the section is thus headed: ‘The Dodo, called by Clusius Gallus gallinaceus peregrinus, by Nieremberg Cygnus cucullatus, by Bontius Dronte.’ ‘This exotic bird, found by the Hollanders in the island called Cygnæa or Cerne (that is the Swan Island) by the Portuguese, Mauritius Island by the Low Dutch, of thirty miles’ compass, famous especially for black ebony, did equal or exceed a swan in bigness, but was of a far different shape; for its head was great, covered as it were with a certain membrane resembling a hood: beside, its bill was not flat and broad, but thick and long; of a yellowish colour next the head, the point being black. The upper chap was hooked; in the nether had a bluish spot in the middle between the yellow and black part. They reported that it is covered with thin and short feathers, and wants wings, instead whereof it hath only four or five long black feathers; that the hinder part of the body is very fat and fleshy, wherein for the tail were four or five small curled feathers, twirled up together, of an ash colour. Its legs are thick rather than long, whose upper part, as far as the knee, is covered with black feathers; the lower part, together with the feet, of a yellowish colour; its feet divided into four toes, three (and those the longer) standing forward, the fourth and shortest backward: all furnished with black claws. After I had composed and writ down the history of this bird with as much diligence and faithfulness as I could, I happened to see in the house of Peter Pauwius, primary professor of physic in the University of Leyden, a leg thereof cut off at the knee, lately brought over out of Mauritius his island. It was not very long, from the knee to the bending of the foot being but little more than four inches, but of a great thickness, so that it was almost four inches in compass, and covered with thick-set scales, on the upper side broader, and of a yellowish colour, on the under (or back side of the leg) lesser and dusky. The upper side of the toes was also covered with broad scales, the under side wholly callous. The toes were short for so thick a leg: for the length of the greatest or middlemost toe to the nail did not much exceed two inches, that of the other toe next to it scarce came up to two inches: the back toe fell something short of an inch and a half; but the claws of all were thick, hard, black, less than an inch long; but that of the back toe longer than the rest, exceeding an inch. The mariners, in their dialect, gave this bird the name Walgh-Vögel, that is, a nauseous or yellowish bird; partly because after long boiling its flesh became not tender, but continued hard and of a difficult concoction, excepting the breast and gizzard, which they found to be of no bad relish, partly because they could easily get many Turtle-doves, which were much more delicate and pleasant to the palate. Wherefore it was no wonder that in comparison of those they despised this, and said they could be well content without it. Moreover, they said that they found certain stones in its gizzard, ‘and no wonder, for all other birds, as well as these, swallow stones to assist them in grinding their meat.’ Thus far Clusius.

“In the voyage of Jacob Heemskerk and Wolfert Harmanz to the East Indies, in 1601, 1602, 1603 (small 4to, Amsterdam, 1648), folio 19, the Dod-aarsen (Dodos) are enumerated among the birds of the Island of ‘Cerne, now Mauritius’; and in the ‘Journal of the East Indian Voyage of Willem Ysbrantsz Bontekoe van Hoorn, comprising many wonderful and perilous things that happened to him’—from 1618 to 1625 (small 4to, Utrecht, 1649)—under the head of the ‘Island of Mauritius or Maskarinas,’ mention is made (page 6) of the Dod-eersen, which had small wings, but could not fly, and were so fat that they scarcely could go.

“Herbert, in his Travels (1634), gives a figure or rather figures of a bird that he calls ‘Dodo,’ and the following account:—‘The Dodo comes first to our description, here, and in Dygarrois (and no where else, that ever I could see or heare of, is generated the Dodo). (A Portuguize name it is, and has reference to her simplenes), a bird which for shape and rarenesse might be called a Phœnix (wer’t in Arabia); her body is round and extreame fat, her slow pace begets that corpulencie; few of them weigh lesse than fifty pound: better to the eye than the stomack: greasie appetites may perhaps commend them, but to the indifferently curious nourishment, but prove offensive. Let’s take her picture: her visage darts forth melancholy, as sensible of nature’s injurie in framing so great and massie a body to be directed by such small and complementall wings, as are unable to hoise her from the ground, serving only to prove her a bird; which otherwise might be doubted of: her head is variously drest, the one halfe hooded with downy blackish feathers; the other perfectly naked; of a whitish hue, as if a transparent lawne had covered it: her bill is very howked and bends downwards, the thrill or breathing place is in the midst of it; from which part to the end, the colour is a light greene mixt with a pale yellow; her eyes be round and small, and bright as diamonds; her cloathing is of finest downe, such as you see in goslins; her trayne is (like a China beard) of three or foure short feathers; her legs thick, and black, and strong; her tallons or pounces sharp; her stomack fiery hot, so as stones and iron are easily digested in it; in that and shape, not a little resembling the Africk oestriches: but so much, as for their more certain difference I dare to give thee (with two others) her representation.’ (4th ed. 1677.)

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