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.)

“Nieremberg’s description (1655) may be considered a copy of that of Clusius, and indeed his whole work is a mere compilation. As we have seen above, he names the bird Cygnus cucullatus.

“In Tradescant’s catalogue (‘Musæum Tradescantianum; or, a Collection of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London, by John Tradescant,’ London, 1656, 12mo), we find among the ‘Whole Birds’—‘Dodar, from the island Mauritius; it is not able to flie being so big.’ That this was a Dodo there can be no doubt; for we have the testimony of an eye-witness, whose ornithological competency cannot be doubted, in the affirmative. Willughby at the end of his section on ‘The Dodo,’ and immediately beneath his translation of Bontius, has the following words: ‘We have seen this bird dried, or its skin stuft in Tradescant’s cabinet.’ We shall, hereafter, trace this specimen to Oxford.

“Jonston (1657) repeats the figure of Clusius, and refers to his description and that of Herbert.

“Bontius, edited by Piso (1658), writes as follows: ‘De Dronte aliis Dod-aers.’ After stating that among the islands of the East Indies is that which is called Cerne by some, but Mauritius ‘a nostratibus,’ especially celebrated for its ebony, and that in the said island a bird ‘miræ conformationis’ called Dronte abounds, he proceeds to tell us—we take Willughby’s translation—that it is ‘for bigness of mean size between an ostrich and a turkey, from which it partly differs in shape, and partly agrees with them, especially with the African ostriches, if you consider the rump, quills, and feathers: so that it was like a pigmy among them, if you regard the shortness of its legs. It hath a great, ill-favoured head, covered with a kind of membrane resembling a hood; great black eyes; a bending, prominent, fat neck; an extraordinary long, strong, bluish-white bill, only the ends of each mandible are of a different colour, that of the upper black, that of the nether yellowish, both sharp-pointed and crooked. It gapes huge wide as being naturally very voracious. Its body is fat, round, covered with soft grey feathers, after the manner of an ostriches: in each side, instead of hard wing-feathers or quills, it is furnished with small, soft-feathered wings, of a yellowish ash-colour; and behind, the rump, instead of a tail, is adorned with five small curled feathers of the same colour. It hath yellow legs, thick, but very short; four toes in each foot, solid, long, as it were scaly, armed with strong, black claws. It is a slow-paced and stupid bird, and which easily becomes a prey to the fowlers. The flesh, especially of the breast, is fat, esculent, and so copious, that three or four Dodos will sometimes suffice to fill an hundred seamens’ bellies. If they be old, or not well boiled, they are of difficult concoction, and are salted and stored up for provision of victual. There are found in their stomachs stones of an ash colour, of divers figures and magnitudes; yet not bred there, as the common people and seamen fancy, but swallowed by the bird; as though by this mark also nature would manifest that these fowl are of the ostrich kind, in that they swallow any hard things, though they do not digest them.’

“It appears from Adam Olearius (Die Gottorfische Kunst Kammer, 1666), that there was a head to be seen in the Gottorf Museum; but the figure (tab. 13. f. 5) is very like that of Clusius. It is mentioned as the head of the Walch-Vogel, and Clusius is referred to. In the plate the head is shaded, and has a more finished appearance: the rest of the bird is in outline.

“Grew (‘Musæum Regalis Societatis; or a catalogue and description of the natural and artificial rarities belonging to the Royal Society,’ London, folio, 1681), at p. 68, thus describes the bird which is the subject of our inquiry. ‘The leg of a Dodo; called Cygnus cucullatus by Nierembergius; by Clusius, Gallus gallinaceus peregrinus; by Bontius called Dronte, who saith that by some it is called (in Dutch) Dod-aers, largely described in Mr. Willughby’s Ornithol. out of Clusius and others. He is more especially distinguished from other birds by the membranous hood on his head, the greatness and strength of his bill, the littleness of his wings, his bunchy tail, and the shortness of his legs. Abating his head and legs, he seems to be much like an ostrich, to which also he comes near as to the bigness of his body. He breeds in Mauris’s Island. The leg here preserved is covered with a reddish-yellow scale. Not much above four inches long, yet above five in thickness, or round about the joints, wherein, though it be inferior to that of an Ostrich or Cassowary, yet, joined with its shortness, may render it of almost equal strength.’ At p. 73, there is the following notice:—‘The head of the Man of War, called also Albitrosse; supposed by some to be the head of a Dodo, but it seems doubtful. That there is a bird called the Man of War is commonly known to our seamen; and several of them who have seen the head here preserved, do affirm it to be the head of that bird, which they describe to be a very great one, the wings whereof are eight feet over. And Ligon (Hist. of Barbad. p. 61), speaking of him, saith, that he will commonly fly out to sea to see what ships are coming to land, and so return. Whereas the Dodo is hardly a volatile bird, having little or no wings, except such as those of the Cassowary and the Ostrich. Besides, although the upper beak of this bill doth much resemble that of the Dodo, yet the nether is of a quite different shape; so that this either is not the head of a Dodo, or else we have nowhere a true figure of it.’ Grew then gives a very lengthened description of the skull which is figured by him (tab. 6), and intituled ‘Head of the Albitros,’ as it doubtless was. The leg above mentioned is that now preserved in the British Museum, where it was deposited with the other specimens described by Grew, when the Royal Society gave their ‘rarities’ to that national establishment. Grew was a well qualified observer, and much of this description implies observation and comparison; indeed, though he does not refer to it, there is no reason for supposing that Grew was not familiar with Tradescant’s specimen.

“Charleton also (Onomasticon, 1688) speaks of the Dodo Lusitanorum (Cygnus cucullatus, Willughby and Ray), and asserts that the Museum of the Royal Society of London contained a leg of the Dodo. This was evidently the leg above alluded to.

“We now proceed to trace the specimen which was in the Musæum Tradescantianum. There were, it seems, three Tradescants, grandfather, father, and son. The two former are said to have been gardeners to Queen Elizabeth, and the latter to Charles I. There are two portraits to the ‘Musæum,’ one of ‘Joannes Tradescantus pater,’ and the other of ‘Joannes Tradescantus filius,’ by Hollar. These two appear to have been the collectors: for John Tradescant, the son, writes in his address, ‘to the ingenious reader’ that ‘he was resolved to take a catalogue of those varieties and curiosities which my father had scedulously collected and my selfe with continued diligence have augmented, and hitherto preserved together.’ This John Tradescant, the son, must have been the Tradescant with whom Elias Ashmole boarded for a summer when Ashmole agreed to purchase the collection, which was said to have been conveyed to Ashmole by deed of gift from Tradescant and his wife. Tradescant died soon after, and Ashmole, in 1662, filed a bill in Chancery for a delivery of the curiosities. The cause is stated to have come to a hearing in 1664; and, in 1674, Mrs. Tradescant delivered up the collection pursuant to a decree in Chancery, and afterwards (April, 1678, some say) was found drowned in her own pond. Ashmole added to the collection, and presented it to the University of Oxford, where it became the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum. That the entire ‘Dodar’ went to Oxford with the rest of Tradescant’s curiosities there can be no doubt. Hyde (Religionis Veterum Persarum, &c., Historia, 1700) makes particular mention of it as existing in the Museum at Oxford. There, according to Mr. Duncan, it was destroyed in 1755 by order of the visitors, and he thus gives the evidence of its destruction:—

“‘In the Ashmolean Catalogue, made by Ed. Llhwyd, Musæi Procustos, 1684 (Plott being the keeper), the entry of the bird is, “No. 29. Gallus gallinaceus peregrinus, Clusii,” &c. In a Catalogue made subsequently to 1755, it is stated “That the numbers from 5 to 46, being decayed, were ordered to be removed at a meeting of the majority of the visitors, Jan. 8, 1755.” Among these of course was included the Dodo, its number being 29. This is further shown by a new Catalogue, completed in 1756, in which the order of the visitors is recorded as follows: “Illa quibus nullus in margine assignatur numerus a Musæo subducta sunt cimelia, annuentibus Vice-Cancellario aliisque Curatoribus ad ea lustranda convocatis, die Januarii 8vo, +a.d.+ 1755.” The Dodo is one of those which are here without the number.’ (Duncan, “On the Dodo,” Zool. Journ. vol. iii. p. 559.)

“We now come to the celebrated painting in the British Museum, a copy of which, by the kind assistance of the officers of the zoological department, who have given us every assistance in prosecuting this inquiry, and who had it taken down for the purpose, we present to our readers.

“It has been stated that the painting came into the possession of Sir Hans Sloane, president of the Royal Society, and that it was bought at his sale by Edwards, who, after publishing a plate from it in his Gleanings, presented it to the Royal Society, whence it passed, as well as the foot, into the British Museum. But Mr. Gray informs us that the foot only came with the museum of the Royal Society described by Grew; and that the picture was an especial gift from Edwards. Edwards’s copy seems to have been made in 1760, and he himself says—‘The original picture was drawn in Holland from the living bird brought from St. Maurice’s Island, in the East Indies, in the early times of the discovery of the Indies by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. It was the property of the late Sir Hans Sloane to the time of his death; and afterwards becoming my property I deposited it in the British Museum as a great curiosity. The above history of the picture I had from Sir Hans Sloane and the late Dr. Mortimer, secretary to the Royal Society.’

“M. Morel (Ecrivain Principal des Hôpitaux au Port-Louis de l’Isle de France) writes as follows in his paper ‘Sur les oiseaux monstrueux nommés Dronte, Dodo, Cygne Capuchonné, Solitaire, et Oiseau de Nazare, et sur la petite Isle de Sable à 50 lieues environ de Madagascar.’ ‘These birds, so well described in the second volume of the ‘History of Birds,’ by M. le Comte de Buffon, and of which M. de Borame has also spoken in his ‘Dictionary of Natural History,’ under the names of Dronte, Dodo, Hooded Swan (Cygne Capuchonné), Solitary or Wild Turkey (Dinde sauvage) of Madagascar, have never been seen in the isles of France, Bourbon, Rodriguez, or even the Seychelles lately discovered, during more than sixty years since when these places have been inhabited and visited by French colonists. The oldest inhabitants assure every one that these monstrous birds have been always unknown to them.’ After some remarks that the Portuguese and Dutch who first overran these islands may have seen some very large birds, such as Emeus or Cassowaries, &c., and described them each after his own manner of observing, M. Morel thus proceeds: ‘However this may be, it is certain that for nearly an age (depuis près un siècle) no one has here seen an animal of this species. But it is very probable that before the islands were inhabited, people might have been able to find some species of very large birds, heavy and incapable of flight, and that the first mariners who sojourned there soon destroyed them from the facility with which they were caught. This was what made the Dutch sailors call the bird ‘Oiseau de dégoût’ (Walck-Voegel), because they were surfeited with the flesh of it.... But among all the species of birds which are found on this isle of sand and on all the other islets and rocks which are in the neighbourhood of the Isle of France, modern navigators have never found anything approaching to the birds above named, and which may be referred to the number of species which may have existed, but which have been destroyed by the too great facility with which they are taken, and which are no longer found excepting upon islands or coasts entirely uninhabited. At Madagascar, where there are many species of birds unknown in these islands, none have been met with resembling the description above alluded to.’ (Observations sur la Physique pour l’an 1778, tom. xii. p. 154, notes.)

“Mr. Duncan thus concludes his paper above alluded to:—‘Having applied, through the medium of a friend, to C. Telfair, Esq., of Port Louis, in the Mauritius, a naturalist of great research, for any information he could furnish or procure relating to the former existence of the Dodo in that island, I obtained only the following partly negative statement:—

“‘That there is a very general impression among the inhabitants that the Dodo did exist at Rodriguez, as well as in the Mauritius itself; but that the oldest inhabitants have never seen it, nor has the bird or any part of it been preserved in any museum or collection formed in those islands, although some distinguished amateurs in natural history have passed their lives on them, and formed extensive collections. And with regard to the supposed existence of the Dodo in Madagascar, although Mr. Telfair had not received, at the time of his writing to Europe, a reply to a letter on the subject which he had addressed to a gentleman resident on that island, yet he stated that he had not any great expectations from that quarter; as the Dodo was not mentioned in any of his voluminous manuscripts respecting that island, which contained the travels of persons who had traversed Madagascar in all directions, many of them having no other object in view than that of extending the bounds of natural history.’

“We close this part of the case with the evidence of one evidently well qualified to judge, and whose veracity there is no reason to doubt. If this evidence be, as we believe it to be, unimpeachable, it is clear not only that the Dodo existed, but that it was publicly exhibited in London. The lacunæ in the print represent the spaces occasioned by a hole burnt in the manuscript.