 Baron Edmond de Sélys Longchamps coined the name Raphus solitarius for these birds in 1848 , as he believed the accounts referred to a species of dodo . When 17th @-@ century paintings of white dodos were discovered by 19th @-@ century naturalists , it was assumed they depicted these birds . Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans suggested that the discrepancy between the paintings and the old descriptions was that the paintings showed females , and that the species was therefore sexually dimorphic . Some authors also believed the birds described were of a species similar to the Rodrigues solitaire , as it was referred to by the same name , or even that there were white species of both dodo and solitaire on the island . 
