the crude and profane ideas entertained by Buffon and his disciples, one of whom calls the
Dodo " un oiseau bizarre, dont toutes les parties portaient le caractère d'une conception
manquée." Ile fancies that this imperfection was the result of the youthful impatience of the
newly-formed volcanic islands which gave birth to the Dodo, and implies that a steady old
continent would have produced a much better article (Bory St. Vincent, Voy. aux Isles des
Mers d'Afrique, vol. ii. p. 305. vol. iii. p. 169).
SECTION IV.—Affinities of the Dodo—Not allied to the Grallatorial or Natatorial orders; nor to the
Rasores ; nor to the Rap/ores—Opinions of Vigors; of Be Blainville ; of La Fresnaije; of Gould;
of Gray ; of Broderip ; of Owen—Affinity of the Dodo to the Pigeons, proved by numerous agreements
of structure.
WE now approach the most difficult part of our subject, viz., to determine, from such imperfect
data as history and anatomy present, the affinities of the Dodo to other generic forms
in the class of Birds. Now it is evident, at first sight, that the Dodo is a very anomalous
and exceptional animal; in the language of systematists, it forms a very isolated genus, far
removed from the large groups in which the more prevalent arrangements of ornithic structure
are displayed; just as its native island is intermediate between Asia and Africa, and can
hardly be referred to either continent. We must not, therefore, expect to discover any very
close or satisfactory affinities between the Dodo and other birds. All that we can do is to
seek for those other generic forms to which, in the majority, or rather the preponderance of
its characters, it makes the nearest approach.
The most prominent characteristic of the Dodo is manifestly its inability to fly, in consequence
of the shortness of its wings. This is an exceptional peculiarity which occurs in
only three families of existing birds,—the Penguins, the Auks, and the Ostriches. It is,
therefore, natural to inquire whether the imperfectly developed wings of the Dodo indicate an
affinity to any of these families. Now the Penguins are the most completely aquatic of all
buds, their feathers are almost reduced into the condition of scales, and their wings are
practically converted into fins, while the palmated and plantigrade feet at once prove their
entire disconnection from the type of the Dodo. The Auks, of which a single species, Alca
impennis, has the wings too short for flight, while the other species of the group are volatile,
represent geographically in the northern hemisphere, the Penguins of the southern, and are
equally remote from the bird before us. The Struthious birds make a somewhat nearer
approach to the Dodo, in the rudimental nature of their plumage, but their long legs and
neck, the comparatively feeble beak, the absence, or very slight development, of the hallux, and
numerous other peculiarities, prove them to be modifications of the Grallatorial order, and by
no means nearly allied to the Dodo. The apparently similar texture of plumage in the Ostriches
and the Dodo (so far as we are acquainted with the latter), does not necessarily indicate any
affinity; for a terrestrial bird of whatever order, if deprived of the means of flight, would, of
in an imperfect state, instead of attaining that fully developed condition which marks the
mature age of the generality of animals. The Greenland Whale, for instance, may be called
a permanent suckling; having no occasion for teeth, the teeth never penetrate the gums, though
in youth they are distinctly traceable in the dental groove of the jaws. The Proteus, again,
is a permanent tadpole; destined to inhabit the waters which fill subterranean caverns, the gills
which in other Batrachian Reptiles are cast off as the animal approaches maturity, arc here
retained tluough life, while the eyes are mere subcutaneous specks, incapable of contributing to
the sense of vision. And lastly (not to multiply examples), the Dodo is (or rather was) a
permanent nestling, clothed with down instead of feathers, and with the wings and tail so short
and feeble, as to be utterly unsubservient to flight.1
I t may appear at first sight difficult to account for the presence of organs which are practically
useless. Why, i t may be asked, does the Whale possess the germs of teeth which arc;
never used for mastication ? Why has the Proteus eyes when he is especially created to dwell
in darkness ? and why was the Dodo endowed with wings at all, when those wings were
useless for locomotion. ? This question is too wide and too deep to plunge into at present; I
will merely observe, that these apparently anomalous facts are really the indications of laws
which the Creator has been pleased to follow in the construction of organized beings; they are
inscriptions in an unknown hieroglyphic, which we are quite sure mean something, but of
which we have scarcely begun to master the alphabet. There appear, however, reasonable
grounds for believing that the Creator has assigned to each class of animals a definite type or
structure from which He has never departed, even in the most exceptional or eccentric modifications
of form. Thus, if we suppose, for instance, that the abstract idea of a Mammal implied
the presence of teeth, the idea of a Vertebrate the presence of eyes, and the idea of a Bird the
presence of wings, we may then comprehend why in the Whale, the Proteus, and the Dodo,
these organs are merely suppressed, and not wholly annihilated.
And let us beware of attributing anything like imperfection to these anomalous organisms,
however deficient they may be in those complicated structures which we so much
admire in other creatures. Each animal and plant has received its pecidiar organization for
the purpose, not of exciting the admiration of other beings, but of sustaining its own existence.
Its perfection, therefore, consists, not in the number or complication of its organs, but in the
adaptation of its whole structure to the external circumstances in which it is destined to live.
And in this point of view we shall find that every department of the organic creation is
equally perfect; the humblest animalcule, or the simplest conferva, being as completely organized
with reference to its appropriate habitat, and its destined functions, as Man himself,
who claims to be lord of all. Such a view of the creation is surely more philosophical than
1 Our efforts to realize this extinct creature will be assisted by the skill of Mr. Jenssen, a sculptor at Copenhagen,
who has made, or is making, plaster casts of the Dodo, the size of life, and coloured from Savcry's pictures
(Bull. Phys. Ac. Petersb. vol. v. p 318). We may hope that some examples of this work of art will soon reach
Britain.