Part 3

“In the ‘Sloane MSS.’ (No. 1839, 5, p. 108, Brit. Mus.) is the following interesting account by L’Estrange in his observations on Sir Thomas Browne’s ‘Vulgar Errors.’ It is worthy of note that the paragraph immediately follows one on the ‘Estridge’ (Ostrich).

“‘About 1638, as I walked London streets I saw the picture of a strange fowl hong out upon a cloth canvas and myselfe with one or two more Gen. in company went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a great fowle somewhat bigger than the largest Turkey Cock and so legged and footed but stouter and thicker and of a more erect shape, coloured before like the breast of a yong Cock Fesan (pheasant), and on the back of dunn or deare coulour. The keeper called it a Dodo and in the ende of a chimney in the chamber there lay an heap of large pebble stones whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as big as nutmegs, and the keeper told us shee eats them (conducing to digestion) and though I remember not how farre the keeper was questioned therein yet I am confident that afterwards she cast them all agayne.’

“Evidence arising from Remains.—The only existing recent remains attributed to the Dodo are, a leg (fig. 4) in the British Museum, and a head (fig. 3) (a cast of which is in the British Museum), and a leg in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the relics most probably of Tradescant’s bird. Whether the leg formerly in the museum of Pauw be that at present in the British Museum may be, perhaps, doubtful, though we think with Mr. Gray that they are probably identical; but that the specimen in the British Museum did not belong to Tradescant’s specimen is clear, for it existed in the collection belonging to the Royal Society when Tradescant’s ‘Dodar’ was complete.

“In the ‘Annales des Sciences’ (tome xxi. p. 103, Sept 1830) will be found an account of an assemblage of fossil bones, then recently discovered, under a bed of lava, in the Isle of France, and sent to the Paris Museum. They almost all belonged to a large living species of land-tortoise, called Testudo indica, but amongst them were the head, sternum, and humerus of the Dodo. ‘M. Cuvier,’ adds Mr. Lyell in his ‘Principles of Geology,’ ‘showed me these valuable remains at Paris, and assured me that they left no doubt in his mind that the huge bird was one of the gallinaceous tribe.’”

Head of Dodo (specimen in the Oxford Museum), one-third nat. size.]

Foot of Dodo (specimen in the British Museum), one-third nat. size.]

The bones in question were obtained from a cavern in the Island of Rodriguez (Desjardins, Analyse des Travaux de la Soc. d’Hist. Nat. de l’Ile Maurice, 2ᵈᵉ année), and belong to the Solitaire (Pezophaps), a large extinct brevipennate bird, allied to the Dodo. The other evidences from remains, cited by Broderip, also relate to the Solitaire.

Such was the history of the Dodo in 1837.

In the following year I visited Holland, chiefly with a view to ascertain whether there might possibly be any remnant of the bird preserved in the Natural History Museums of that country, and to collect for my friend whatever other evidence, material, written or pictorial, might have escaped his assiduous researches.

My visits to the museums at Leyden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and the Hague, during which I received every requisite aid from the accomplished Professors and Curators, were productive of only negative results. The little other information I was able to obtain was communicated to Mr. Broderip, who incorporated it in the following “Supplement to his History.”

“Additional evidence relative to the Dodo. By +W. J. Broderip+, Esq., F.R.S.

“The interest which attaches to any communication relative to an extinct, and, at one time, a doubted species, must be my apology for offering the following addition to the evidences of the existence and habits of the Dodo.

“My old and valued friend Professor Owen presented me, on his return from Holland some time since, with a short thick volume, bearing on its titlepage (not without black letter) the following promise:—

“‘C. Plinii Secundi Des wijdt-vermaerden Natuurkondigers vijf Boecken.

Handelen van de Nature.

I. Van de Menschen. II. Van de viervoetige en Kruypende Dieren. III. Van de Vogelen. IV. Van de Kleyne Beestjes of Ongedierten. V. Van de Visschen, Oesters, Kreeften, &c.

“‘Hier zijn by-gevoeght de Schriften van verscheyden andere oude Authueren de Natuur der Dieren aengaende. En nu in desen laetsen Druck wel het vierde part vermeerdert, uyt verscheyden nieuwe Schrijvers en eygen oudervindinge: en met veel Kopere Platen verziert t’Amsterdam, By +Abraham Wolfgangh+, 1662.’

“The frontispiece presents the artist’s notion of the Garden of Eden, with a very Dutch Adam and Eve, the latter with the apple in her hand, while the serpent twined round the tree looks sly and satisfied. Our first parents are surrounded by beasts, and in the foreground is represented a piece of water with waterfowl and ‘ill-shaped fishes.’

“The superscription is ‘C. Plinius S. Van de Menschen, Beesten, Vogelen en Visschen.’

“Mr. Strickland, in his elaborate work on ‘The Dodo and its Kindred,’ in which he has done me the honour to adopt the arrangement and the information collected in my article ‘Dodo,’ in the ‘Penny Cyclopædia,’ gives some addenda in his postscript to Part I. of his and Dr. Melville’s book. ‘The first of these,’ writes Mr. Strickland, ‘is a rare edition of Bontekoe’s Voyage, kindly communicated to me by Dr. Bandinel, the Bodleian Librarian, entitled “Journael van de acht-jarige avontuerlijcke Reyse van Willem Ysbrantsz Bontekoe van Hoorn, gedaen nae Oost-Indien,” published in quarto at Amsterdam, by Gillis Joosten Zaagman. There is no date; but from a narrative introduced at the end, it must be subsequent (probably by a year or two) to 1646. The narrative is nearly a verbatim version of the other Dutch editions of Bontekoe; and the only variation of text which concerns us, is in the statement that the underside of the Dodo dragged along the ground, which is here qualified thus:—“sleepte haer de neers by na (i. e. almost) langs de Aerde.” But what gives a peculiar interest to this volume is, that it contains (alone of all the editions of Bontekoe which I have seen) a figure of the Dodo, which I here present.’ Then follows the cut.

“‘This highly ludicrous representation,’ continues Mr. Strickland, ‘is more like a fighting cock than a Dodo; and the black letter of the Dutch text omits to tell us whether this design was due to the pencil of Bontekoe or his publisher Zaagman, or whether it was copied from some contemporary painting now forgotten. But there can be no doubt that this figure refers to the true Dodo of Mauritius, and not to the “Solitaire” of Bourbon, with which Bontekoe confounded it.

“‘We may regret that the rudeness of the original woodcut leaves us in the dark as to the nature of the object on which the Dodo appears about to feed. This figure would pass equally well for a testaceous mollusk, or for an arboreal fruit; so that the problem of the Dodo’s food seems as far from a solution as ever.’

“In Wolfgangh’s publication, p. 480, is the following description:—

“‘Op’t Eylandt Mauritius in Oost-Indien, als mede op sommige andere plaetsen gelijck mede in West-Indien, vindt men voegels soo groot als Swanen, die men Dodaersen of Dronten noemt, sy hebben groote hoofden, en daer op een velleken in manier van een Kapken, sy hebben geen vleugels, dan in plaetsvan dien, 3 of 4 swarte pennekens, en daer haer staert behoorde te staen, daer Zijn 4 of 5 gekrulde Pluymkens, van graeuwachtige verwe. Sy hebben een dicke ronde Naers, daer uyt het schijnt, dat haer de naem van Dodaers toe gekomen is; in de maegh hebben sy gemeenlijck een Steen van een vuyst groot, dese is bruyn, graeuw van verwe, en vol gaetkens, en hollingheydt, doch soo hart als grauwe Bentemeer-steen. Het Boots-volck van Jacob van Neck, noemden se Walgh-vogels, om dat se die niet recht gaer of murrruw konden koken: of om datse soo veel Tortel-duyven konden bekomen, die leckerder smaeckten, datse van dese Dod-aersen de walgh kregen. Aen 3 of 4 van dese Vogels had al’t Scheeps volck van een Schip, voor een maeltijdt genoegh t’ eeten: Dese Dod-aersen hebbense oock ingesouten en op de reys mede genomen.’

“This description may be thus rendered:—

“‘In the Island of Mauritius in the East Indies, as also in sundry other places, likewise in the West Indies, men find birds as big as swans, which they call Dod-aerses or Drontes. They have large heads, upon the top of which is a skin (a little skin-membrane) in the shape of a cap (little cap). They have no wings, but in the place of them there are three or four black feathers; and there where the tail should be, there are instead four or five curling plumes of a greyish colour. They have a thick round rump, and from this it appears they got the name of Dod-aerses. In their stomachs they have commonly a stone as big as a fist; this stone is of a brown-grey colour, and full of little holes and hollows, but as hard as the grey Bentemer stone. The boat’s crew of Jacob van Neck called them Walgh-vogels (surfeit birds), because they could not cook them till they were done, or make them tender; or because they were able to get so many turtle-doves which had a much more pleasant flavour, so that they took a disgust to these birds. Likewise it is said that three or four of these birds are enough to afford a whole ship’s company one full meal. Indeed they salted down some of them, and carried them with them on the voyage.’

“At the top of the page in which this passage commences is printed ‘Van de Dodaersen.’ And immediately below it and above the description is a copper-plate of the bird, superscribed ‘Dod-aers,’ in engraved italics.

“The engraving of the bird is identical in position and accessories with the woodcut given by Mr. Strickland; but the sharpness of the work and the nature of the plate make the whole much clearer. The object at which the Dodo is looking, as if about to feed, is manifestly a testaceous mollusk with a turbinated shell, and between that and the raised foot of the bird is a half-buried spiny Echinus.