3 JANUARY 1874, Page 9

We have had a fond dream and a great disappointment

this week. The hope has been raised, but cruelly dissipated by Pro- fessor Owen, that a live Dodo had been found in the Samoan Islands, and was coming over to America, if not to England. But alas ! it is not the Dodo (Didus), but the Dodlet (Didunculus), which has been found, and the Dodlet, says Professor Owen, is six times less bulky than the Dodo. This is almost as bad as being assured that a Methuselah had been been discovered, and finding that we had only lighted upon an Old Parr. "Decent respect," as Charles Lamb said of his friend Crabb Robinson, "shall always be" the Dodlet's, "but somehow short of reverence."