The phrase As Dead As A Dodo means something is long obsolete, and no longer available. The Portuguese found Dodos on the island of Mauritius and named them "doudo", meaning stupid. A dodo was a large flightless with wings too small for its fat body. It would be taken on board a ship and, unable to escape, kept alive as fresh meat to be eaten by hungry sailors as required. By the end of the 17th century they had been eaten into extinction - one of the first recorded species to be so - and the expression passed over into the English language.