Query IV.—Are there any original authors who mention the Dodo as a living bird, besides Van Neck, Clusius, Heemskerk, Willem van West-Zanen, Matelief, Van der Hagen, Verhuffen, Van den Broecke, Bontekoe, Herbert, Cauche, Lestrange, and Benjamin Harry? Or any authority for the Solitaire of Rodriguez besides Leguat and D'Heguerty; or for the Dodo-like birds of Bourbon besides Castelton, Carré Sieur D.B., and Billiard?
Query V—In Rees' Cyclopæia, article BOURBON, we are told that in that island there is "a kind of large bat, denominated l'Oiseau bleu, which are skinned and eaten as a great delicacy." Where did the compiler of the article pick up this statement?
Query VI.—Is there in existence any figure, published or unpublished, of the Dodo-like bird which once inhabited the Isle of Bourbon?
Query VII—What is the derivation or meaning of the words Dodaers and Dronte, as applied to the Dodo?
Query VIII.—Sir Hamon Lestrange has recorded that about 1638 he saw a living Dodo exhibited in London. (See Sloane MSS. 1839, v. p. 9. in Brit. Mus.; Wilkin's ed. of Sir T. Browne's Works, vol. i. p. 369.; vol. ii, p. 173.; The Dodo and its Kindred, p. 22.) Is there any contemporary notice extant in print or in MS. which confirms this statement? A splendidly bound copy of The Dodo and its Kindred will be given to any one who can answer this query affirmatively.
Query IX.—In Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazou, Chester, 1688, p. 289, we find a Dodo figured as an heraldic device, a fac-simile of which is given in the Annals of Natural History, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 260. The author thus describes it: "He beareth Sable a Dodo or Dronte proper. By the name of Dronte. This exotic bird doth equal a swan in bigness," &c. &c. Now I wish to ask, where did this family of Dronte reside? Is anything known concerning them? How did they come by these arms? and are any members of the family now living?
Query X.—From a passage in the Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1776, p. 37, it appears that Pingré the French astronomer, published, or at least wrote, a relation of his voyage to Rodriguez, in which he speaks of Solitaires. Is this the fact? and if so, what is the title of his work?
H.E. STRICKLAND.