tongues, the beak is large, curving a little downwards; their legs are long, scaly, with only three toes on each foot.
It has a cry like a gosling, and is by no means so savoury to eat as the Flamingos and Ducks of which we have just
spoken. They only lay one egg which is white, the size of a halfpenny roll, by the side of which they place a white
stone the size of a hen’s egg. They lay on grass which they collect, and make their nests in the forests; if one
kills the young one, a grey stone is found in the gizzard. We call them Oiseaux de Nazaret.2 The fat is excellent
to give ease to the muscles and nerves.
11. Page 24. “De Dronte aliis Dodaers,” &c.
Of the Dronte or Dodaers. Among the islands of the East Indies is reckoned that which by some is called
Ceme, and by our countrymen, Mauritius, most famous for its black ebony. In this island a bird of wonderful
form, called Dronte, abounds. In size it is between an Ostrich and a Turkey, from which it partly differs in form
and partly agrees, especially with the African Ostrich, if you regard the rump, the quills, and the plumage; so that
it seems like a pygmy among them in respect of the shortness of its legs. The head is large, clumsy, covered with
a membrane like a hood. The eyes are large and black; the neck curved, prominent, and fat; the beak remarkably
long and strong, of a bluish white, except the ends, of which the lower is black, the upper yellowish, and both
pointed and hooked. The gape is hideous, enormously wide, as though formed for gluttony. The body is fat,
round, and clothed with grey feathers in the manner of Ostriches, On each side, in place of quills, it is furnished
with small feathered wings,1 of a yellowish grey, and behind the rump, in place of tail, with five curved plumes of
the same colour. The legs are yellow, thick, but very short; the toes are four, stout, long, scaly, and the claws
strong and black. The bird is slow and stupid, easily taken by the hunters. Their flesh, especially that of the
breast, is fat, eatable, and so abundant that three or four Drontes have sometimes sufficed to feed a hundred
seamen. If not well boiled, or old, they are more difficult of digestion, and when salted, are stored among the
ship’s provisions.
Pebbles of various form and size, of a grey colour, are found in the stomach of these birds, not however formed
there, as the vulgar and the sailors believe, but swallowed on the sea shore; as though by this proof also it
appeared that these birds agree with the nature of the Ostrich, since they swallow all kinds of hard substances
without digesting them.
11. Page 25. “Num. 5 ist ein kopff,” &c.
No. 5 is the head of a foreign Bird which Clusius names Oallus peregrinns, Nierenberg Cygnus eueullatus, and
the Dutch Walghvogel, from the disgust which they are said to have taken to its hard flesh. The Dutch seem to
have first discovered this bird in the island of Mauritius; and it is stated to have no wings, but in place of them
two winglets, like the Emeu and the Penguins.
i Perhaps this name has been given them from having been found in the isle of Nazareth, which is higher up than tha t of Mauritius,
in 17° S.
AP P EN DIX, B.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE DIDINÆ.
Works which I have personally consulted are marked * (H. E. S.)
I. THE DODO.
A.D.
*1598. (Walckvögel)—Neck (Jacob Cornelius van). Le second Livre, Journal ou Comptoir contenant le vray
Discours et Narration historique du voyage faict par les huict Navires d’Amsterdam au mois de Mars
l’An 1598. fol. Amsterdam, 1601 ; 2nd ed. 1609. (Dutch) Waerachtigh Verhael van de Schip-vaert
op Oost-Indien ghedaen by de acht Schepen, onder den Heer Admirael Jacob van Neck en de Yice-Admirai
Wybrand van Warvnjck van Amsterdam gezeylt in den jare 1598. 4to. Amsterdam, 1601 ; 1648,
p. 6; another ed. 4to. Amst. 1650, p. 6. (German) by L. Hulsius, Nürnberg, 1602; Franckfort,
1605.— —(Latin) De Bry, Indiæ Orientalis partes IV, V. fol. Franckfort, 1601. (English) London,
1601.—Prévost, Histoire générale des Voyages, 4to. Rouen, 1725 ; vol. 8. p. 123.—Clusius, Exotica,
lib. v. ch. 4. p. 99.
*1602. (Wallichvogeh)—Heemskerk (Jacob van). Journal of Beyer Cornelisz in “Begin ende Voortgangh van de
Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oostindische Compagnie.” 4to. 1646. s. 1. vol. 1.
*1602. (Dodaarsen or Dronten)—West-Zanen (Willem van). Derde voornaemste Zee-getogt (der verbondene
vrye Nederlanderen) na de Oost-Indien, gedaan met de Achinsche en Moluksche Vloten, onder de Am-
miralen Jacob Heemskerk en Wolfert Harmansz. In den Jare 1601, 1602, 1603. Getrocken Uyt de
naarstige aanteekeningen van Willem van West-Zanen, Schipper op de Bruin-Vis, en met eenige noodige
byvoegselen vermeerdert, door H. Soete-Boom. 4to. Amsterdam, 1648, p. 21.
*1605. (Gallinaceus Gallus peregrinns)—Clusius (C.) Exoticorum libri decern, fol. Raphelengii, 1605 ; lib. v.
ch. 4, p. 100.
*1606. (Dodaersen or Dronten)—Matelief (Cornelius). Voyage in “ Begin ende Voortgangh van de Vereen.
Nederl. Geoctr. Oostind. Compagnie,” v. 2. p. 5. (French) Recueil des Voiages qui ont servi à
1’établissement et au progrès de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales, formée dans les Provinces Unies des
Pais-bas. 5 vols. 12mo. Amsterdam, 1702-1706; v. 3. p. 214.
*1607. (Dodaersen)—Hagen (Stephen van der). Voyage in the “ Tweede Deel van het Begin ende Voortgangh der
Vereen. Nederl. Geoctr. Oostind. Compagnie.” p. 88. (French) Recueil des Voiages de la Comp, des
Indes Or. v. 3. p. 195, 199.—Prévost, Hist. gén. des Voyages, v. 5. p. 246—Van Soldt’s Voyage.
*1611. (Totersten)—Verhuffen (P. W.) Eylffter Schiffart, ander Theil, oder kurzer Verfolg und Continuirung
der Reyse so von den Holl--und Seeländem in die Ost Indien mit neun grossen und vier kleinen Schiffen
vom 1607 biss in dass 1612 Jahr verrichtet worden, L. Hulsius. 4to. Franckfort, 1613.
*1617. (.............. ) Broecke (Pieter van den). XXV jaarige Reyse-Beschryving naer- Africa en Oost-Indien.
2 L