We next hear of the dodo, in a curiously indirect manner, through an
uneducated French adventurer named Cauche, who passed several years in
Madagascar and the adjacent islands. His narrative, edited by one
Morissot, an _avocat_, was published in 1651, and created great
interest in France. In 1638, he was at the Mauritius, and there
saw a bird which he describes under the name of the bird of
Nazareth--_oiseau de Nazaret_--so termed, as he states, from its being
found on the island of Nazareth, which lies to the northward of the
Mauritius. The description is an accurate one of the dodo, with the
exception of two particulars--one, as to the number and position of
the toes; the other, as to the creature having no tongue--a prevalent
opinion then amongst the vulgar with respect to several other birds.
Though there is no record of this bird of Nazareth having been seen by
any one but Cauche, yet, ever since, his phantom-like picture has
skulked in the obscurity, adding to the mystery which enveloped the
dodo. Time, however, has now exorcised it. There never was a bird of
Nazareth. What Cauche saw was undoubtedly a dodo; and his errors of
description are what any person, not a naturalist, might commit.
_Oiseau de Nazaret_ is simply a corruption of _oiseau de nausee_--the
original French name of the dodo, a literal translation of the
original Dutch walghvogel.
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