Strange Birds

The Dodo Bird

Congratulations! You have defeated the herd of unicorns and are safely through the dark forest. Ponce still leads you onwards, this time to the side of a gaping cliff filled with sharp stones. The smell of the sea is near and calming.

“Ah-ha!” shouts Ponce! “There she is!” He points toward a lovely woman standing on the banks of the sea. At this yell, she looks up and waves him toward her.

“Ponce! Seeking another treasure, are we?” she asks.

“We seek the Fountain of Youth, my lady, but first we must get past this cliff,” said Ponce.

“Then you must pass the Dodo bird,” she replied.

“The Dodo bird?” asks Ponce.

“Yes, the Dodo bird, which may well be described as a strange bird, if what we are told of its habits and peculiarities is to be trusted. It should be premised, that it has certainly been thought to be extinct for nearly a century, and that some naturalists have disputed the fact that it ever existed. Of this, however, there can be no reasonable doubt. Vasco de (lama after doubling the Cape of Good Hope, discovered in an island some sixty leagues beyond it, a bird which he calls ‘the Solitary,’ the description of which, as given by him and other navigators near about his time, accords very well with that of the Dodo. Clusius in his ‘Exotica,’ published in 1605, gives a sketch of the bird taken from one drawn by a Dutch captain, and adds the following account of it. ‘This exotic bird found by the Hollanders in the island called Cerne (the Mauritius) did equal, or exceed, a swan in bigness, but was of a far different shape: for its head was great, covered as it were with a certain membrane resembling a hood. Its bill was not flat and broad, but thick and long, of a yellowish colour near the head, the point being black. It is covered with thin and short feathers, and wants wings, instead whereof it hath only four or five long black feathers. The hinder part of the body is very flat and fleshy, wherein for the tail were four or five small curled feathers, twisted up together, of an ash colour. The flesh when boiled continued to be so tough as to be unfit for food.”

“Another traveller reports that ‘stones, and especially one brown stone, is found in the stomach and gizzards of the dodos, which would seem to argue that they are of the ostrich kind. When these birds build their nests, they choose a clean place, gather together some palm leaves for the purpose, and heap them up a foot and a half high from the ground, on which they sit. They never lay but one egg, which is much larger than that of a goose. The male and female sit on it by turns. All the while they are sitting on it, they will not suffer any other bird of their species to come within two hundred yards of the place; but — what is very singular — the male will never drive away any strange females. When he perceives one, he makes a noise with his wings to call the female, and she drives the unwelcome stranger away, not desisting until it is without the prescribed bounds. The female does the same as regards any intruding males, summoning her mate, and leaving to him to expel the trespassers. Some days after the young one leaves the nest, a company of thirty or forty bring another young one to it; and the new-fledged bird, with its father and mother, joining with the band, marches to some bye place,” she ended.

“Thank you for the helpful information, my lady! We’ll keep our eye out for Dodo bird when we leave this cliff!” Ponce remarked. You follow Ponce away from the lady and as you climb down the cliff, you spot just the creature you learned about.

“In order to defeat him, you must answer the follow question correctly,” Ponce tells you.

QUESTION: What kind of leaf does the Dodo use to build its nest?