uropeans, were uninhabited, or
difficult of access to the nearest people. The group which is situated
to the eastward of Madagascar, consisting of Bourbon, Mauritius, and
Roderigue, were almost the only islands of this description met with
by the early circumnavigators of the Cape; and it is there that we
find the last traces of this very remarkable bird, which disappeared,
of course, from Bourbon and the Mauritius _first_, on account of their
being more visited and finally colonized by the French; and lastly
from Roderigue, an island extremely difficult of access, and without
any safe bay or anchorage for shipping.

[15] We are aware that the destruction or total extinction of
any of the species of animals of contemporaneous creation
with man, is a point of much controversy among
philosophers. The best reply to this doubt is the
repeated discovery of the fossil remains of animals
entirely different from the existing species; proving
their extinction to form a part of the scheme of creative
wisdom.

We obtain these particulars from a paper in the _Magazine of Natural
History_,[16] by John V. Thompson, Esq. F.L.S. This gentleman, during
a residence of some years in the above islands, in vain sought for
some traces of the existence of the Dodo there; he discovered,
however, a copy of the scarce and curious voyage of Leguat, who, and
his companions, appear to have been the first inhabitants of
Roderigue: and from their journal he has translated the following
account of the Dodo.

[16] Vol. i. p. 442.

[Illustration: _The Dodo._]

"Of all the birds which inhabit this island, the most remarkable is
that which has been called Solitaire (the solitary), because they are
rarely seen in flocks, although there is abundance of them.

"The _males_ have generally a greyish or brown plumage, the feet of
the turkey-cock, as also the beak, but a little more hooked. They have
hardly any tail, and their posterior, covered with feathers, is
rounded like the croup of a horse. They stand higher than the
turkey-cock, and have a straight neck, a little longer in proportion
than it is in that bird when it raises its head. The eye is black and
lively, and the head without any crest or tuft. They do not fly, their
wings being too short to support the weight of their bodies; they only
use them in beating their sides, and in whirling round; when they wish
to call one an