Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850 | Page 3

Music_, vol. v. p. 108.
_The French Change, Soho._--A place so called in the reign of Queen Anne. Gough, in a MS. note, now before us, thought it stood on the site of the present bazaar.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
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NOTES ON THE DODO.
I have to thank "Mr. S.W. SINGER" (No. 22. p. 353.) for giving some interesting replies to my "Dodo Queries" (No. 17. p. 261.). I trust that Mr. S. will be induced to pursue the inquiry further, and especially to seek for some Portuguese account of the Mascarene Islands, prior to the Dutch expedition of 1598. I am now able to state that the supposed proof of the discovery of Bourbon by the Portuguese in 1545, on the authority of a stone pillar, the figure of which Leguat has copied {411} from Du Qesne, who copied it from Flacourt, turns out to be inaccurate. On referring to Flacourt's _Histoire de la Grande Isle Madagascar_, 4to., Paris, 1658, p. 344, where the original figure of this monument is given, I find that the stone was not found in Bourbon at all, but in "l'Islet des Portugais," a small island at the mouth of the river Fanshere (see Flacourt, p. 32.), near the S.E. extremity of Madagascar. From this place Flacourt removed it to the neighbouring settlement of Fort Dauphin in 1653, and engraved the arms of France on the opposite side to those of Portugal. We are therefore still without any historical record of the first discovery of Bourbon and Mauritius, though, from the unanimous consent of later compilers, we may fairly presume that the Portuguese were the discoverers.
The references which Mr. Singer has given to two works which mention the Oiseau bleu of Bourbon, are very important, as the only other known authority for this extinct bird is the MS. Journal of Sieur D.B., which thus receives full confirmation. May I ask Mr. Singer whether either of these writers mentions the Solitaire as inhabiting Bourbon?
The "Oiseaux appelez _Flamands_" quoted by Mr. S., are merely _Flamingos_, and are devoid of interest as regards the present question.
The history of the Dodo's head at Copenhagen, referred to by Mr. Singer, is fully recorded in the _Dodo and its Kindred_, pp. 25. 33.
The name Dodo seems to have been first applied to the bird by Sir Thomas Herbert, in 1634, who adds, in his edition of 1638, "a Portuguese name it is, and has reference to her simpleness." Before that time the Dutch were in the habit of calling it _Dodars_, _Dodaers_, _Toters_, and Dronte. I had already made the same guesses at the etymology of these words as those which Mr. Singer has suggested, but not feeling fully satisfied with them, I put forth my Query VII. for the chance of obtaining some further elucidation.
Mr. Singer's reasonings on the improbability of Tradescant's specimen of the Dodo having been a fabrication are superfluous, seeing that the head and foot of this individual are, as is well known, still in existence, and form the subjects of six plates in the Dodo and its Kindred.
In regard to my Query IX. as to the local habitation of the family of _Dronte_, who bore a Dodo on their shield, it has been suggested to me by the Rev. Richard Hooper (who first drew my attention to this armorial bearing), that the family was probably foreign to Britain. It appears that there was a family named _Dodo_, in Friesland, a member of which (Augustin Dodo, deceased in 1501) was the first editor of St. Augustine's works. Mr. Hooper suggests that possibly this family may have subsequently adopted the Dodo as their arms, and that Randle Holme may, by a natural mistake, have changed the name of the family, in his _Academy of Armory_, from Dodo to the synonymous word Dronte. Can none of your genealogical readers clear up this point?
H.E. Strickland.
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DERIVATION OF "STERLING" AND "PENNY".
Your correspondent suggests (No. 24. p. 384.) an ingenious derivation for the word _Sterling_; but one which perhaps he has been too ready to adopt, inasmuch as it helped his other derivation of _peny_, from pecunia or pecus. I quote the following from _A short Treatise touching Sheriff's Accompts_, by Sir Matthew Hale: London, 1683:
"Concerning the second, _viz._ the matter or species whereof the current coin of this kingdom hath been made, it is gold or silver, but not altogether pure, but with an allay of copper, at least from the time of King H. I. and H. II., though possibly in ancienter times the species whereof the coin was made might be pure gold or silver; and this allay was that which gave the denomination of Sterling to that coin, _viz._ Sterling Gold, or Sterling Silver. Wherein there will be inquirable,
"1. Whence that denomination came?
"2. How ancient