Picture of the Week 48

Oxford Dodo 2001 I went back to Oxford to look at the dodo again in 2001. I had been there before in the summer of 1999, on a lunchbreak from shooting 'Quills' and added the whole 'Dodo' subplot to 'The Eyre Affair', the book I was writing at the time. But I didn't take a picture, so here it is now.

Actually, this isn't a stuffed dodo at all - there aren't any. This is just amodel probably made from pigeon feathers. It is a close enough approximation from contemporary reports and paintings, although experts disagree on how plump it was. The wise money now says that it was both - a lean, mean running machine and a waddling behometh - it probably gorged on fruit during the abundant season to last through the winter more easily.