“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