The Dodo and the Solitaire: A Natural History (Life of the Past)

The Dodo and the Solitaire is the most comprehensive book to date about these two famously extinct birds. It contains all the known contemporary accounts and illustrations of the dodo and solitaire, covering their history after extinction and discussing their ecology, classification, phylogenetic placement, and evolution. Both birds were large and flightless and lived on inhabited islands some 500 miles east of Madagascar. The first recorded descriptions of the dodo were provided by Dutch sailors who first encountered them in 1598—within 100 years, the dodo was extinct. So quickly did the bird disappear that there is insufficient evidence to form an entirely accurate picture of its appearance and ecology, and the absence has led to much speculation. The story of the dodo, like that of the solitaire, has been pieced together from fragments, both literary and physical, that have been carefully compiled and examined in this extraordinary volume. This account of two extinct bird species offers “an amazing amount of history, references, facts, maps, and illustrations” (Library Journal). The Dodo and the Solitaire is the most comprehensive book to date about these two famously extinct birds. It contains all the known contemporary accounts and illustrations of the dodo and solitaire, covering their history after extinction and discussing their ecology, classification, phylogenetic placement, and evolution. Both birds were large and flightless and lived on inhabited islands some five hundred miles east of Madagascar. The first recorded descriptions of the dodo were provided by Dutch sailors who encountered them in 1598—and within a century, the dodo was extinct. So quickly did the bird disappear that there is insufficient evidence to form an entirely accurate picture of its appearance and ecology, and the absence has led to much speculation. This extraordinary book pieces together the story of these two lost species from the fragments that have been left behind. “An up-to-date and comprehensive review of everything we know about the dodo and solitaire.” —Journal of Verterbrate Paleontology Acknowledgments Introduction: A Melancholy Visage Note on Translations Notes on the Text List of Abbreviations 1. Written Accounts of the Dodo 2. Written Accounts of the Rodrigues Solitaire 3. Contemporary Illustrations 4. Secondary Contemporary Sources and Miscellanea 5. Anatomical Evidences 6. The Natural History of the Dodo and the Solitaire 7. Afterword: Memories of Green Notes Bibliography Index