You've heard the sayings "dumb as a dodo" and "dead as a dodo."  There's a good reason why these sayings came to be.  The dodo was a bird that lived on some islands near Africa.  And it was really dumb.  It was so fat that when it tries to run, it's stomach would rub on the ground.  It was bigger than a turkey but it had only tiny little wings and couldn't fly. 

     About the year 1600, settlers came to the islands where the birds lived.  They called them dodos from a Portuguese word meaning "stupid."  The birds were killed by the settlers and their dogs.  The dodos were too dumb to run away. 

     A stuffed dodo was put in the British museum.  After a while, it started to rot.  The people at the museum were going to throw it out.  But the head and one foot were still good, so the museum saved them. And that's all that is left today of the dodo bird.