Chapter 35
section thirty five of birds and all nature volume seven number five may nineteen hundred recorded for dodo is the portuguese name for simpleton and it is given to the silliest bird that ever lived three hundred years ago when the portuguese first visited the island of mauritius they found a great number of these birds they were about the size of a large swan blackish-gray in color and having only a bunch of feathers in place of a tail and little useless wings more stupid and foolish birds could not be imagined they ran about making a silly hissing noise like a goose and the sailors easily knocked them over with their paddles they couldn't fly they couldn't swim they couldn't run at any great speed and as for fighting they were the greatest cowards in the world they were much too stupid to build a nest and so they dropped an egg in the grass and went off and let it hatch as best it could
added to all these things its flesh was fairly good to eat and the portuguese pursued it so steadily for food that in less than a century's time there wasn't a single dodo left in the world it was quite too silly and stupid to save its own life and so it became extinct end of section thirty five
