DODO ( Nen•Lat. US, Port. dowio, simple ton. p0--i dy connected with Devonshire. Engl. (fold. (loll. lit. dulled. from dull plioNTE tl)titch. of origin, bloaletl ). An extinct bird i De/ IN in, plus I of .latirititts. allied to the pigeons. a 1111 representing a family which was confined to the .latirititis, 11(lriguez, and Dunrhun group of islands. and became extinct to ward the end of the seventeenth century. It is dc.crilwd by several voyagers of the sixteenth and sev(iiteenth centuries. who also spoke of it as and 'droute.' and seems even to have heen brought alive to Europe. The descriptions of those who saw it are continued by several more rude drawings prcserved iu various Euro pean libraries and especially in 1101 land. These represent a bird larger than a swan; of a very heavy and clumsy form and a corre sponding gait, with short, thick, scale•covercd legs; three rather short toes before and one be hind: large head: very large bill. the upper limn dilde longer than the tinder, awl much hooked at the point : the wim_fs sr short as to be of no use for !light, and furnished only with a few black feathers: the general plumage a kind of gray ish down: the tail merely a tuft or of curiously eluded feat hi rs. The (Vas so
abundant when of the first voyagers visited 'Mauritius that they become satiated w ith its they des•ril.e. pa•ticularly the breast, a. good. The birds were easily killed• being wholly unable to fly, and running Tla it -reedy extinction after islands began to he 'sited :111.1 rattled 1.• thins accounted for; yet it ...eel!) bane been tine It, tin increase of pit!, upon the i-Jawl. rather than direelly to I11.11 . The dodo sccnasto !sate been for lit in tropical the luxuriant ‘egetal ion afforded it a ready supple of food. and its pow, rful hooked beak was adapt ed to tearing Neg.table and not animal sill, stnneeq. (bile tray( I, r asserts that these birds ut tered a cry like a gosling, and laid a single large white .1 hIll'S of grass in the woods. Con sult : Newton. Dirt ion', ry of (London, 1s96) ; Annual Report f nitcd States Nut lona/ .11 us, u ,t, ltssti) ; Von Frauenfeld. Sea II/9# bbildang tics na, 1,StiS) ; ihe Iio.lo and Its Kim/red (London, Ists). Compare See EN: TIN( r .X9131.tt.s.