562
return of spring.”
25
While the apotheosis of the mechanics of flight as enshrined in
avifauna presents little ambiguity in terms of human admiration, those primeval
love affairs are more than tainted by a paradox that reads of “13% of all bird species
(roughly 1,300 prior to global re-assessments of taxa that almost doubles the count)
that are presently threatened with extinction; “9% near threatened” and some “78%”
of all populations of birds in decline.
26
Some of this category of known threat was well recognized by scientists in the
mid-nineteenth century. In 1848, nearly two centuries after the Dodo had succumbed to human massacre, H. E. Strickland and A. G. Melville published their
work, The Dodo And Its Kindred.
27
Its most charismatic color frontispiece facsimile
of Roelant Savery’s 1626 painting of a Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) reveals the bird’s
most gentle nature, all the most pathetic given its unilateral demise. Art historians
debate whether Savery started painting the Dodo in 1604, when he had arrived at
Rudolf’s castle, or not until 1611 (Fig. 59.5).
Did Savery paint the bird while it still lived? It does matter, in every way. But
reportage of the time, anecdotal evidence, inventories, and various notated itineraries evoke enormous, if uncertain historical minutiae. There is no question that
Savery painted at least a dozen versions of the great bird which, in adulthood, stood
over a meter in height and weighed nearly 40 pounds, as can be calculated from
anecdote, from the 1634 sketch by Sir Thomas Herbert in which a broad-billed parrot, red rail, and dodo are drawn side by side,
28
but also induced from the subfossil
materials discovered in the Mare aux Songes swamplands of the Mauritius itself
where, by 1662, the real Dodo had gone extinct.
29
Passionate erudition has targeted the Savery/Dodo connections. For example, the
last possible location of Rudolf II’s specimen, or one of them, may have turned up
25 See Birds and People, by Mark Cocker, Photographs by David Tipling. Jonathan Cape, London,
2013, p. 186.
26 See IUCN 2016. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Version 2016-3: www.iucnredlist.
org/pdflink.115131842.
27 …Or the History, Affinities, and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and Other Extinct Birds of the
Islands Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Bourbon, Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, London, 1848.
28 See Herbert’s Travels, p. 347, WellCome Library, https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b20663705#?
m=0&cv=358&c=0&s=0&z=-0.6843%2C-0.079%2C2.3685%2C1.5801, Accessed April 25,
2020.
29 See “The history of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the penguin of Mauritius,” by Julian
P. Hume, Historical Biology, 2006; 18(2): 65–89, Taylor & Francis, http://julianhume.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2010/07/History-of-the-dodo-Hume.pdf. See also, Roeland Savery 1576–1639,
Museum Voor Schnone Kunsten, Gent, 10 April – 13 Juni 1954, Image #s 75 and 107; and see
Roelant Savery, Die Gemälde Mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, by Kurt J. Müllenmeister, Luca
Verlag Freren, Düsseldorf, 1998, “Landschaft mit Vögeln (Wiener Dodo) Kupfer 42 x 57, Roelandt
Savery FE, 1628,” p. 268; See also, Roelandt Savery, 1576–1639, Filippe De Potter, Isabelle De
Jaegere, Olga Kotkova, Stefan Bartilla and Joaneath Spicer, Published by Gent Snoeck, 2010; and
L’odyssée Des Animaux, Les Peintres Animaliers Flamands Du XVIIIE Siècle, Sandrine VézilierDussart, Snoeck, Gent 2016. See also A. S. Cheke, “The legacy of the dodo – conservation in
Mauritius,” Oryx, 21 (1): 29–36, 1987, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300020457; Anthony
S. Cheke, “The Dodo’s last island,” 2004, Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius.
59 Savery’s Castle of Secrets
return of spring.”
25
While the apotheosis of the mechanics of flight as enshrined in
avifauna presents little ambiguity in terms of human admiration, those primeval
love affairs are more than tainted by a paradox that reads of “13% of all bird species
(roughly 1,300 prior to global re-assessments of taxa that almost doubles the count)
that are presently threatened with extinction; “9% near threatened” and some “78%”
of all populations of birds in decline.
26
Some of this category of known threat was well recognized by scientists in the
mid-nineteenth century. In 1848, nearly two centuries after the Dodo had succumbed to human massacre, H. E. Strickland and A. G. Melville published their
work, The Dodo And Its Kindred.
27
Its most charismatic color frontispiece facsimile
of Roelant Savery’s 1626 painting of a Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) reveals the bird’s
most gentle nature, all the most pathetic given its unilateral demise. Art historians
debate whether Savery started painting the Dodo in 1604, when he had arrived at
Rudolf’s castle, or not until 1611 (Fig. 59.5).
Did Savery paint the bird while it still lived? It does matter, in every way. But
reportage of the time, anecdotal evidence, inventories, and various notated itineraries evoke enormous, if uncertain historical minutiae. There is no question that
Savery painted at least a dozen versions of the great bird which, in adulthood, stood
over a meter in height and weighed nearly 40 pounds, as can be calculated from
anecdote, from the 1634 sketch by Sir Thomas Herbert in which a broad-billed parrot, red rail, and dodo are drawn side by side,
28
but also induced from the subfossil
materials discovered in the Mare aux Songes swamplands of the Mauritius itself
where, by 1662, the real Dodo had gone extinct.
29
Passionate erudition has targeted the Savery/Dodo connections. For example, the
last possible location of Rudolf II’s specimen, or one of them, may have turned up
25 See Birds and People, by Mark Cocker, Photographs by David Tipling. Jonathan Cape, London,
2013, p. 186.
26 See IUCN 2016. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Version 2016-3: www.iucnredlist.
org/pdflink.115131842.
27 …Or the History, Affinities, and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and Other Extinct Birds of the
Islands Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Bourbon, Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, London, 1848.
28 See Herbert’s Travels, p. 347, WellCome Library, https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b20663705#?
m=0&cv=358&c=0&s=0&z=-0.6843%2C-0.079%2C2.3685%2C1.5801, Accessed April 25,
2020.
29 See “The history of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the penguin of Mauritius,” by Julian
P. Hume, Historical Biology, 2006; 18(2): 65–89, Taylor & Francis, http://julianhume.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2010/07/History-of-the-dodo-Hume.pdf. See also, Roeland Savery 1576–1639,
Museum Voor Schnone Kunsten, Gent, 10 April – 13 Juni 1954, Image #s 75 and 107; and see
Roelant Savery, Die Gemälde Mit Kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, by Kurt J. Müllenmeister, Luca
Verlag Freren, Düsseldorf, 1998, “Landschaft mit Vögeln (Wiener Dodo) Kupfer 42 x 57, Roelandt
Savery FE, 1628,” p. 268; See also, Roelandt Savery, 1576–1639, Filippe De Potter, Isabelle De
Jaegere, Olga Kotkova, Stefan Bartilla and Joaneath Spicer, Published by Gent Snoeck, 2010; and
L’odyssée Des Animaux, Les Peintres Animaliers Flamands Du XVIIIE Siècle, Sandrine VézilierDussart, Snoeck, Gent 2016. See also A. S. Cheke, “The legacy of the dodo – conservation in
Mauritius,” Oryx, 21 (1): 29–36, 1987, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300020457; Anthony
S. Cheke, “The Dodo’s last island,” 2004, Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius.
59 Savery’s Castle of Secrets