Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo [Hardcover]

Clara Pinto-Correia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2003

Using the history of the concept of extinction with the dodo as a case study, Pinto-Correia carefully weaves together story fragments to give a cohesive eye-opening view of 17th century exploration and the grave ramifications it had for the survival and extinction of many species. More importantly, she shows us the intellectual underpinnings of the old view that it was acceptable for some animals to die out. Within this narrative, we can see what the modern view of the dodo tells us about the history of our changing understanding and valuation of nature and our place in it. Strong writing, powered by lively historical anecdotes and sober insights into human behavior, makes this beautifully illustrated book a page-turner to the end.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews: "Pinto-Correia recounts the history of the dodo, both as a biological specimen and as an enduring subject of cultural history and lore." SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE "The Dodo went from being newly discovered to extinction in less than a hundred years. … Clara Pinto-Correia, in following the bird’s re-creation, shows in this remarkable book how the human intellect and the human imagination prey on sketchy facts and images, how missing pieces and incomplete lines are merged and fused to make a cohesive whole." (FirstScience.com, April, 2003) "Pinto-Correia skillfully weaves the tale of the discovery, exploitation, and extinction of the dodo and the closely related Rodrigues and Réunion Solitaires of the Mascarene Islands. … the author has produced a readable, sometimes fascinating, history of the multiple discoveries of the islands by European nations. … A thoroughly researched, footnoted, and readable book. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels." (S.W. Harris, CHOICE, June, 2003) "Pinto-Correia presents an excellent history of one of the most famous extinct birds, the dodo, and the two allied species found only in the Mascarene Islands … . Delving knowledgeably into history, art, folklore, and biology, this is a fine, readable account of the vulnerability, everywhere, of island life forms. Highly recommended." (Henry T. Armistead, Library Journal, February, 2003)

From the Inside Flap

The dodo went from being newly discovered to extinction in little more than a century. This flightless, odd-looking bird was seen for the first time by Europeans and then annihilated by Europeans all between the early sixteenth and the second half of the seventeenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century, all that remained of what Portuguese explorers called the "crazy bird" was a patchwork of tall tales, contradictory reports, incompatible illustrations, and a single dodo's skull and foot. The dodo had become, in short, an unsolvable puzzle, but a puzzle that persisted in art, literature, and scientific speculation.

In this remarkable book, Clara Pinto-Correia shows how the human intellect and the imagination prey on sketchy facts and images, and how missing pieces and incomplete lines are merged and fused to make a cohesive whole. By considering the incredibly strong hold of this bumbling and ungainly creature on our collective scientific and literary imagination, Pinto-Correia teaches us not just about the ill-fated bird from the island paradise of Mauritius, but about our own abiding need to make sense of the world around us.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Springer (January 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387988769
• ISBN-13: 978-0387988764
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,153,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars extinct in less than a century!, April 26, 2003

By 

nancyyipes "nancyyipes" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo (Hardcover)

Subtitle of this book is "The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo" and so it is. Pinto-Correia mixes a bit of humor with a pleasant writing style, lots of relevant history and geography, and a sad shake of her head about how rapacious humans are.

It was a marvelously heady period in Europe's awakening after intellectual dark days and Pinto-Correia gives the reader a sense of that emergence. On one level the dodo is a symbol of an eden found and lost on three small islands along the way to spices and riches. In their rush to gather spices, riches and glory men plundered these islands and left them poorer - the islands' inhabitants were decimated and became fearful, the men did not realize what a treasure they had found.

The reader can assign other levels to the story as Pinto-Correia unfolds it. Science came into its own during these centuries, and the dodo's discovery and extinction is a grand example of the days when alchemy gave way to chemistry and astrology became astronomy. Natural history developed as well, with taxonomy seemingly in the forefront. The dodo was classified and plunged into first one species then another, had little to prove that it even existed, finally was declared extinct - all in less than 100 years.

Pinto-Correia packs information about the hapless bird and the European humans of the era into this book. The reader learns painlessly while realizing this is a learning experience.

For this reader Return of the Crazy Bird is a grand vacation read, easy to pick up and put down without losing the thread of the story.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mistaken notions, September 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo (Hardcover)

This book pales having arrived just after E. Fuller's recent book "The Dodo from extinction to icon (UK)". From a scholarly vantage it fails utterly.

Firstly the book is quite parochial dwelling at great length on issues very distant from the dodo such as Portuguese navigation and ignoring the fact that the dodo was painted in India completely. The book makes extraordinary claims like "Why do we know so much about what the dodo looked like?" when the text itself makes clear we know very little and makes tremendous claims on behalf of R. Savery, (a relatively poor artist of animals) in the context of his contribution to Western art - why. The best thing about Savery was he did several pictures of the dodo unlike many other artists though Savery's dodos cannot be trusted for accuracy.

Most of the facts in the book such as the numbers of dodo's that arrived in Europe or how much contact R. Savery had with the dodo are either speculative or from doubtful sources. Though references are copious, some important references are not taken up and there is an over reliance on secondary sources. Much of the content it must be said is therefore presumptious.

There are some new translations such as descriptions by Clusius on the dodo's head, but there is little primary material of relevance in a critical style on the dodo itself.

As a celebration of the iconic place of the dodo and the history of the period and the Mascarenes this book has some claims, but you'd be better off reading Fuller. As there are so few good books on the Dodo I think this book is a reasonable start and the author has written it with enthusiasm.

4.0 out of 5 stars Slender volume but most interesting read, May 4, 2003

By 

Wendy-Marie Chabot "The Bad Gwen" (Central CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo (Hardcover)

At a young age, the author Clara Pinto-Correia heard about the long extinct dodo and became fascinated by the bird's fate. The end result is a well-researched and well-written text that takes the reader from the shores of Europe to a small chain of islands where the dodo and it's genetic cousins made their homes.

Sadly, the dodo and it's genetic cousins were doomed to extinction with the arrival of Europeans (starting with the Portuguese). The plump, flightless animals were slow breeders with a single offspring per mating season and no natural enemies. Add ravenous creatures (Homo sapiens included) into their safe mircosphere and diaster was assured.

Pinto-Correia traces the few captive dodos in Euorpe and the fates of their remains. Now, the only things the modern world has of the dodo are a scattering of bones, some paintings and sketches and the cultural understanding that to be a dodo is to be doomed.

A must read for the natural history reader or devotee.