 The dodo appears frequently in works of popular fiction , and even before its extinction , it was featured in European literature , as symbol for exotic lands , and of gluttony , due to its apparent fatness . In 1865 , the same year that George Clark started to publish reports about excavated dodo fossils , the newly vindicated bird was featured as a character in Lewis Carroll 's Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland . It is thought that he included the dodo because he identified with it and had adopted the name as a nickname for himself because of his stammer , which made him accidentally introduce himself as " Do @-@ do @-@ <unk> " , his legal surname . The book 's popularity made the dodo a well @-@ known icon of extinction . 
