. The naturalist's library : containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects . nd serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying. ORDER XVI. —INERTE S. Birds of this order have the bill of different forms; body probably thick,covered with down, and feathers with distant webs; legs placed muchbehind; tarsus short; three toes before, divided to the base ; hind toe short > Aptenodytes Patachonica, Lath. The ^enus Aptenodytes has the bill longer than thehead, slender, straight, inflected at the tip; upper mandible furrowed throug
. The naturalist's library : containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects . nd serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying. ORDER XVI. —INERTE S. Birds of this order have the bill of different forms; body probably thick,covered with down, and feathers with distant webs; legs placed muchbehind; tarsus short; three toes before, divided to the base ; hind toe short > Aptenodytes Patachonica, Lath. The ^enus Aptenodytes has the bill longer than thehead, slender, straight, inflected at the tip; upper mandible furrowed throughout its■whole length, the under wider at the base, and covered with a naked and smooth skm ;nostrils in the upper part of the bill concealed by the feathers of the forehead , .egs veryshort, thick, placed lar behind; four toes directed forward, three of which are webbed,and the foirth very short; wings incapable of flight. A VES—DODO. 683 .irticulated exteriorly, claws thick and sharp; wings improper for are only two birds known of this order; the apteryx, a bird inhabitingNew Zealand, and the dodo THE dodo;. Swiftness is generally considered as the peculiar attribute of birds; butthe dodo, instead of exciting that idea by its appearance, seems to strike theimagination as a thing the most unwieldy and inactive of all nature. Itsbody is massive, almost cubical, and covered with gray feathers ; it is justbarely supported upon two short thick legs like pillars. The neck, thickand pursy, is joined to the head, which consists of two great chaps, that openfar behind the eyes, which are large, black, and prominent; so that theanimal, when it gapes, seems to be all mouth. The bill, therefore, is cf anextraordinary length, not flat and broad, but thick, and of a bluish white,sharp at the end, and each chap crooked in opposite directions. From allthis, results a. stupid and voracious physiognomy; which is still moreincreased by a bordering of feathers round the root o
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Keywords: ., bookauthordwightjonathan185, bookcentury1800, booksubjectzoology
