Harry Pasley Higginson and his role in the re-discovery of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus)

Abstract

Harry Pasley Higginson, a railway engineer from Yorkshire, northeast England, is one of the people credited with the first discovery of mid-Holocene dodo ( Raphus cucullatus) bones at Mare aux Songes, Mauritius, in 1865. A question still hangs over who could rightfully claim to be the first discoverer of the bones. It could have been Higginson, George Clark (a local schoolteacher) or perhaps someone else. Higginson collected a number of bones and kindly sent three boxes of dodo remains to museums in York, Leeds and Liverpool. The bones he sent are still there. Higginson later set up residence in New Zealand, where he became established as a successful engineer. Two of his achievements, the Kawarau suspension bridge and a dodo, are commemorated in stained glass in the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul in the New Zealand capital.