turalists, are few,
but, in a scientific view, very precious. They consist in all of a
head and leg in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, a leg in the British
Museum, and a head in the Royal Museum (_Kunst-Kammer_) at Copenhagen.
The head and leg at Oxford are the sole remains of Tradescant's dodo.
After the death of the last of that family, Ashmole obtained
possession of their museum, which he subsequently presented to the
University of Oxford. This dodo can be clearly traced to have been in
the Ashmolean Museum until the year 1755, when, having been suffered
to fall into decay, it was, by the order of the vice-chancellor of the
university, and a majority of the visitors, condemned to be burned!
For a long time after, the dodo was forgotten, or the fact of its once
having existed was treated as a mere myth, till Dr Shaw, in 1793,
rummaging among the refuse of the museum, rediscovered this identical
head and leg. The question arises: How were these relics preserved?
Did some university magnate desire their retention from the flames?
Did some conservative curator slily conceal them before the fatal
mandate was executed? No! Even this paltry palliation must be refused
to the learned Vandals. It is to Ashmole himself that science is
indebted for these remains of the last specimen of a whole species.
That litigious old Chancery lawyer, when he presented his museum to
Oxford, did so under certain restrictions, which he drew up with his
own hands, and which the university was bound to obey. One of these
rules decrees, that any specimen in a bad condition should not be
totally destroyed; but any hard parts, such as the head, horns, or
feet, should be put away in a closet. This head is still in tolerable
preservation. The singular form of the beak and nostrils, the bare
skin of the face, combined with the partly feathered head, which the
old writers compared to a hood, are still strikingly apparent. Of the
history of the leg in the British Museum, little is known. It formerly
belonged to the Royal Society, and is in all probability the same that
is mentioned in the catalogue of a museum that was offered for sale in
London by a person named Hubert, in 1664. It is certain that the leg
at Oxford, and that at London, did not belong to the same bird; for
though they are right and left, and their perfect agreement in
character proves their identity of species, yet one is nearly an inch
longer than the other. The head at Copenhagen was de