Mr. Thompson finds this evidence strengthened by the facts and
statements of a paper by Mr. Duncan, in the _Zoological Journal_ for
January, 1828; and infers that a bird of corresponding size and
character did actually exist, of which the only remains are a bill and
foot in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and a foot in the British
Museum, all of which Mr. Thompson examined on his return from the
Mauritius in 1816. The specimen, which in part remains at Oxford, was
originally in the museum of Tradescant, at Lambeth, which was
purchased and removed to Oxford by Dr. Ashmole; the _entire bird_ is
proved to have been in the Museum in 1700; and in a catalogue of the
collection drawn up since 1755, the disappearance of all but the bill
and foot of the Dodo is explained by an order of a meeting of the
visitors in the last-named year. Tradescant, it will be recollected,
was gardener to Charles the Second; and in the portrait of him still
preserved is introduced a Dodo, which belonged to him when alive.
Another painting of the bird, to be seen in the British Museum, is
stated by Mr. Duncan, to have been executed from a living bird, sent
from the Mauritius to Holland, the Dutch being the first colonists of
that island; but, Mr. Thompson thinks, "to dissipate all doubts as to
its accuracy, it should be collated with a description taken from the
Ashmolean specimen, should such be found to exist."

Mr. Thompson is inclined to consider Leguat's natural history of the
Dodo as "the only one that was ever penned under such favourable
circumstances. No doubt this first colony, in so small an island,
considerably reduced the number of the Dodo; but when they finally
disappeared, does not seem to be anywhere recorded." The most
interesting consideration connected with their disappearance is their
being "the only vertebrated animals which we can make certain of