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The Dodo.
(Didus ineptus.)
This remarkable bird was discovered in Mauritius in 1598. The name Dodo comes from the Portuguese Doudo, simpleton, refers to its sluggish habits and disinclination to escape at the approach of man. From various 17th cent. travellers we learn that ³the Dodar is not able to flie, being so big,² that ³its fflesh is very hard² and that it was accustomed to swallow ³large pebble stones as bigge as nutmegs.² It appears to have been about the size of a Turkey and to have frequented forests, where it fed upon roots, and laid its single white egg on a mat of grass. By the end of the 17th cent. the Dodo had become extinct, for besides man, hogs and other animals helped to exterminate it.