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THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNINQ, NOVEMBER 21, 1711
3id Wi
But YouVe Relished
- - " " ' IP '
Wartt
y It" 71 wr i
Skeleton . of the Dodo From Bones
Found on the Island of Mauritius.
Many a Morsel of White
and Dark Meat j From This
Prehistoric FowFs Great-
Great-Great-Grandson
and You'll Enjoy
Some More Next Thursday. Science
Has Made Some Remarkable New
Discoveries About the Turkey and,
Just Think of It, He Isn't an
V
American Bird After All! ,
O, YOU haven't sat
down to a dodo din
ner ; that is, .not un
less you are a
Mauritian 235
years old.
Don't be humili
ated on that aj
count, howevef .
N You have eaten his descendant many times.
If Dr. T. Ahmstead Savage, F. R. Q. S., is
right
Yes, sir, turkey, the traditional bird of
America, is not American, the explorer
Bays. The great "Thanksgiving bird" has
nothing of which to be proud in his an
cestry ; he cornea from the dodo, the most
foolish and inane bird that ever laid an
egg.
Maybe the bird wont taste so well
truly colossal dimensions, comparatively
speaking, for they were sometimes twelve
feet in height."
For ten years the doctor, who is noted
for his explorations In Madagascar, has
been looking up the lineage of the turkey.
In carrying on this work he haa been ably
assisted by his wife, Mrs. Lois Savage.
They have traveled all around the world
In making their investigations.
Relatives.
Dr. Savage and his wife remained in
China almost a year studying birds and
fowl there with relation to a possible con
nection with the turkey tribe. Then they
went to the Island of Borneo, to Japan,
and finally came to this country. Here
they observed farmyard turkeys for sev
eral months, and finally went to the Amerl-
big feet and savage ways that
lived in New Zealand about 250
years ago. The moa and the
dodo became extinct almost at
the same' time. Scientists have
been unable to explain this ca
lamitous ' coincidence. Laymen
who have given it feathery con
sideration hint that perhaps the
moas and dodos met unexpect-
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jwgs i, ; q jf000 The Dodo, Great-Great-Great-Grand-
wftSSU' 2$'S father of the Turkey, as Jt Has Been I
' l?-""' Restored in the American Museum1
- of Natural History, New York.
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M E x ic an Wild Tupe v 1 j
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How "Birds' Peerage" Traces the Ancestry of the Turkey.
after this, but the chances are you will for
get all about the ugly -dodo when the holi
day carving begins.
Dr. Savage of Melbourne, Australia, is
not alone In his connection of the turkey
with the dodo. In 1638 Sir Hamon Le
strange told of seeing a great bird on exhi
bition in a London side show and that it
was "somewhat bigger than the largest
turkey cock and so legged and footed, but
shorter and thicker."
Dr. Savage also attempts to trace the
turkey's antecedents to the Moa, the ex
tinct bird of New Zealand, which resem
. Med the dodo In many particulars. The
Encyclopedia Britannica says in describ
ing the ancient bird: "Soma were of
can Museum of Natural History in New
York, where they completed their task.
One of the greatest aids to Dr. Savage
at the American Museum were two figures
of the dodo, a bird which became extinct
230 years ago and is generally believed to
have been a myth, although science has
proved beyond a doubt that it existed on
the Island of Mauritius and was one of
the silliest birds that ever drew breath
through a bilL The dodo, according to Dr.
Savage, was the great-great-great-grandmother
of our American turkey.
Such being the case, who was the great-great-great-grandfather?
"Why, the moa!"
says Dr. Savage. Know what a moa is, or
rather, "was"? A moa was a bird with
The Moa'a Egg,. The Moa Was Also
an Ancestor of Our Thanksgiving
Bird.
edly, looked at each other and then decided
there wasn't any use living longer.
However, their descendants were fairly
sane In appearance, and bo they went on
living and multiplying with variable re
sults till the 6tock twisted itself Into that
of the pheasant .family, and from the
pheasant family trotted the turkey tribe.
Advances Remarkable Theory.
It is a remarkable theory which Dr.
Sarage advances one that will come as a
distinct shock at this time of the year to
those good Americans who sit at the fes
tive board and discuss turkey as "the great
American dish." Before sailing for En
rope on the steamship Lapland Oct. 20 Dr.
Sarage unfolded bis theory and presented
his alleged proofs of it at a dinner given In
his honor In Mew York City by Dr. H. 8.
The Smallest Egg Is a
Chicken's, Behind It Is
the Moa'a. Next to the
Right Is an
Ostrich Egg
and on the
Extreme
Right Is the
Egg of the
Aepyomis,
an Extinct Ancestor of
the Moa and Dodo.
Lee, a prominent author
ity on Chinese ornithology.
"It is generally conced
ed," he said at the dinner,
"that the pheasant family
includes the turkey under
the name 'meleagrlnae,'
which includes, among oth
ers, the Mexican wild tur
key, known as the imme
diate ancestor of the Amer
ican domestic turkey. It is
in tracing back the pheas
ant that we reach the interesting great-great-great-grandparents
of the turkey.
"To understand my theory thoroughly
it is first necessary to take a map of the
world. Tliere place a finger on Brazil.
Then glance over to Africa. You win see
an Indentation extending to French Equa
torial Africa. Now, Imagine that In some
early period of the earth's existence South
America and Africa were ne continent.
"This, of course. Is a well-known theory.
Let us, then, go still farther. Study Aus
tralia carefully. Look at New Zealand.
See how It would fit snugly against Aus
tralia, from Brisbane on down below Cape
Howe. Next take Australia from Cape
Bougainville on down to Northwest Cape
and put It against the east coast of Africa',
from Italian Somaliland to Zanzibar.
"Following out the generally accepted
theory that South America and Africa
once were one continent, let us go farther
and assume that Australia and New Zea
land were a part of the continent In a
prehistoric upheaval they were separated.
Before the separation occurred, however,
the moas and the dodos lived -together se
renely. "When the break took place, according
to ornithological observations I have made,
the immediate predecessor of the turkey re
mained on the South American continent.
There was a better development of the
turkey remaining In Australia and New
Zealand. Along with it remained the moa,
and on the Island of Mauritius was- the
weird dodo. It had found a mate in the
moa, only to lose him, but the offspring
of the moa and dodo was the genuine tur
key strain.
Indeed, turkeys lived in New Zealand
along with the moas. These last birds, by
the way, were of varying sizes, some being
no larger than the turkey and others grow
ing to a height of fourteen feet Now, It
is perfectly plain to me that the original
turkey lived in Australia, Africa and New
Zealand ; that the pheasant went to South
America, and there, through natural selec
tion, the Mexican turkey was evolved.
This in turn became the American turkey.
"Great American Bird."
"The first bird known to science is the
archaeopteryx, which lived in the cretace
ous age. After this came the hesperornls,
a two-legged creature that was amphibious
and lived chiefly on fish. The archaeop
teryx and the hesperornls are the only
birds we know of that had teeth.
"Their offspring was the apteryx, or
kiwi. After the kiwi came the moa and
dodo and finally the pheasant and turkey.
There is your 'birds' peerage.' or blrd
tree,' or whatever yon choose to call It I
am willing to stake my reputation against
that of any ornithologist fir the world that
I am correct Assuming, therefore, that I
am correct. It is untrue and unfair to say
that the turkey is the 'great American
bird.' It is nothing of the kind. It really
Is a bird that belongs to Africa and Aus
tralia." Professor Savage was greatly inter
ested In a skeleton and a restored figure of
the dodo which have Just been pot on ex
hibition in the . American Museum. The
skeleton is the first of its kind erer-MUt
hooW
nnsyl
to this country. The only others like It
are In the British Museum, Oxford and!
Cambridge universities and Utrecht The
bird Is the gift of Walter Winans of thai
Baltimore family of that name, who now
lives in Surrenden Park, England.
Of course, as the dodo became extlncflj
230 years ago, the specimens at the Ameri
can museum are restorations. Skull tod
legs were cast from original parts thafr
were saved by early voyagers to ths Island)
of Mauritius. The dodo had a huge, blac
lsh bill, terminating in a horny
cheeks partly bare; thick, short ck
yellow legs and feet ah-colored plnmageit
stumpy wings unfit for flying, and a shorn
tail of white, curled feathers. It looked?
like a mammoth pigeon and was a boot4
half the size again of a turkey.
Bird Proved to Be Good Mixexv .
When the Potognee discovered Mmrrt
tins In 15X17 there were plenty of dodos ox
, the island. The bird showed sach a socia
ble disposition that the voyagers named lb
"dnodo," meaning "simpleton."
The moas are one of the most Interest
lng groups of ornithology for the reason
that they fill the gap between the modem'
birds and those of prehistoric times; also!
because they are the biggest feathered1
birds, and therefore originally frying blrds'
The hind toe, the shape of the legs anft
other characteristics similar to the pigeon!
and the turkey show that the -relation off
i great-grea test-grandfather is no dream, and
the same reasoning applies to the dodo.
They laid but one egg, in which respect
their descendants, the pheasants .and the
turkeys, thow more progrenHlveness, unkm
the size Is considered, when It will be
seen that the net result Is about the same
in weight
As for the m'oa's eggs proper, before the
crossing with the dodo, those of the great
est? of the moas, known as the "aeplor
nlthes," are among the marvels of the past,
one of which, found In Madagascar, and
now In the collection of a private Individ
ual, a resident of Orange, N. holds mora
than two gallons and is as bulky ae ICO
hens' eggs rolled into one. Such facts have a
tendency to support the stories of Marco
Polo, one of which was that he presented!
the Great Kahn of the Tartars several nun,
dred vears ago with' a feather of a bird oft
Madagascar "9 spans long and 2 psJam
wide.-