Cathey White, age 10 of Corveta, 0

Where was the home of the dodo bird?

Hundreds of years ago, the dodo birds lived on a windy little island in the Indian Ocean. The wind caught their tail feathers and wing feathers and whisked them high into the air. They were helplessly blown out to sea or dashed to perish on the rocks. Gradually, only the dodos with a few feathers survived. Soon, no dodos with flying wings were born. All the dodos were heavy birds, big as turkeys and with a few long feathers that could be caught by the wind.

The name of the little island was Mauritious. It was discovered by Portuguese sailors who named the slow moving birds with their word for stupid. Men, pigs and monkeys found the big, fat birds good to eat. Soon there were none of them left. The last dodo perished in 1681. Now there are no live dodos in the world, nor will there ever be dodos again. For the dodo relative of the pigeon is extinct.