The dodo and its kindred or, The history, affinities, and osteology of the dodo, solitaire, and other extinct birds of the islands Mauritius, Rodriguez and Bourbon, by H. E. Strickland and A.G. Melville; 1848; Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, London.
This seminal 1848 monograph sets out to separate the myth from reality regarding perhaps the world's most famous extinct bird. The book was borne from a dissection of the dried out head of the last remaining stuffed Dodo, carried out by Strickland and Melville in the mid 19th century.