Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.) by Richard Owen

“Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)” by Richard Owen is a scientific publication written in the mid-19th century. The book focuses on the extinct Dodo bird of Mauritius, combining historical accounts, pictorial and written evidence, and anatomical descriptions. Its primary aim is to document the history and physical characteristics of the Dodo using all available evidence from literature, art, museum specimens, and recent discoveries of skeletal remains to establish a comprehensive understanding of this bird’s existence and affinities. The opening of this work lays out a meticulous historical introduction, recounting early European encounters with the Dodo, descriptions and illustrations from travel accounts, and the subsequent preservation (and loss) of Dodo specimens in various museums. Richard Owen presents a summary of William John Broderip’s exhaustive investigations, detailing primary sources that reference the Dodo and discussing known physical remains, such as bones and skins, as well as the depiction of the Dodo in 17th-century paintings. The narrative then transitions to more recent developments, including the discovery of additional bones in Mauritius and efforts to confirm their identity, thus setting the stage for a scientific analysis of the Dodo’s anatomy and its classification within the bird family. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Read or download for free

How to read Url Size
Read now! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.html.images 253 kB
EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.epub3.images 3.4 MB
EPUB (older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.epub.images 3.4 MB
EPUB (no images, older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.epub.noimages 162 kB
Kindle https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.kf8.images 9.5 MB
older Kindles https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.kindle.images 9.4 MB
Plain Text UTF-8 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75956.txt.utf-8 196 kB
Download HTML (zip) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/75956/pg75956-h.zip 4.0 MB
There may be more files related to this item.

About this eBook

Author Owen, Richard, 1804-1892
Contributor Broderip, William John, 1789-1859
Title Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)
Original Publication London: Taylor and Francis, 1866.
Note Reading ease score: 55.4 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read.
Credits Charlene Taylor, Robert Tonsing, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Language English
LoC Class QL: Science: Zoology
Subject Dodo
Category Text
EBook-No. 75956
Release Date
Copyright Status Public domain in the USA.
Downloads 1140 downloads in the last 30 days.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!