Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9585
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    Figure of the Dodo

    Date
    1848
    Object type
    Library reference
    R65401
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 54mm
    width (print): 72mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Zoology
          > Ornithology
    Biology
       > Natural history
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
          > bird
    Description
    Study of the Dodo, [Raphus cucullatus], the extinct flightless bird from Mauritius. The bird appears within a landscape with what appears to a shell, perhaps implying its diet. Printed with a motto from Horace: “Pes et Caput uni Reddentur formae.” Commented upon by Hugh Edward Strickland (1811-1853): “This highly ludicrous representation is more like a Fighting-cock than a Dodo...”

    Title page vignette and p.62 from The Dodo and its kindred; or the history, affinities, and osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other extinct birds of the islands of Mauritius, Rodriguez and Bourbon, by H.E.Strickland and A.G.Melville (London, 1848).

    Redrawn from an edition of Journael van de achtjarige avontuerlijcke Reyse van Willem Ysbrantsz Bontekoe van Hoorn, gedaen nae Oost-Indien published by Gillis Joosten Zaagman (Amsterdam, ca.1646?).
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Africa
          > Mauritius
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