HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



153 



organ of vision, while the cornea is very convex, 

 and the olfactory system so much larger than in 

 other birds, that Professor Owen remarks, " The 

 nocturnal habits of this bird, combined Vfith the 

 necessity for a highly developed organ of smell, 

 which chiefly compensates for the low condition of 

 the organ of vision, produce the most singular 

 modifications which the skull presents, so that it 

 may be said that those cavities which, in other 

 birds, are devoted to the lodgment of eyes, are in the 

 Apterix almost exclusively devoted to the nose." 

 The nostrils externally are very narrow, very small, 

 and set on each side of the tip of the long curved 

 beak, which at this point is somewhat swollen. 

 The internal olfactory apparatus and the pituitory 

 surface, on which the olfactory nerve freely ramifies, 

 is complex and extensive. Like all the Cursores, 

 the legs are very strong and muscular, the tarsi 

 short and stout, the toes, four in number, without 

 intervening webs, the three anterior strong, and 

 armed with powerful claws, the hinder one short, 

 and, terminated. ' t by a sort of spur, with which it is 

 said to defend itself very vigorously, by striking 

 very rapidly, and with great force. The eggs, for 

 so small a bird, are of great size, and show the 

 absurdity of judging of the size of an animal from 

 the size of the egg. The eggs weigh on an average 

 14i ounces, while the [adult bird weighs 60 ounces ; 

 the proportion being about l-4th, while in the com- 

 mon fowl it is l-48th, and in the case of the ostrich 

 1-lOOth ; with some animals, such as the alligator 

 and crocodile, it is much less. 



Gigantic Birds. — There are, or, if extinct, were, 

 birds of far more gigantic proportions, viz., the 

 Dinornis and Notornis of New Zealand, and the 

 iEpiornis of Madagascar. The Dinornis giganteus 

 stood from 12 feet to 11 feet high. Two portions of 

 bone in the Brighton museum would quite lead, were 

 other evidence wanting, to the belief that the bird 

 was not only of giganticdimensions,but possessed of 

 immense power of stride. In connection with this 

 bird, it is said that some years ago a traveller re- 

 turning from New Zealand brought with him a few 

 inches of bone. This was before the days of the 

 gold discovery; the traveller had heard of the 

 gigantic birds of New Zealand, and also of Professor 

 Owen, to whom the piece of bone was present ed- 

 it was big enough in diameter to have been the bone 

 of an ox, but upon examination Professor Owen 

 noticed a peculiar cancellated structure only found 

 in the bones of birds. A bird to possess such a bone 

 must have been considerably larger than an ostrich. 

 He therefore set to work to construct an outline of 

 the bird. The figure, when produced, caused no 

 small amount of disbelief, and, as some thought, 

 showed hasty conclusions on Owen's part. But, 

 causing inquiries to be made in New Zealand, some 

 disjointed bones turned up ; these were packed up 

 and sent in a trunk to London ; when put together 



they formed the incomplete skeleton in the Museum 

 of the College of Surgeons. From 11 feet to 1G feet 

 appears to be the height assigned to the Dinornis 

 giganteus; the tibia (leg-bone) measures 2 feet 

 10 inches, and the legs to the root of the tail 6 feet. 

 An egg found in the volcanic sand by Mr. Walter 

 Mantell, was so large that he said his hat would 

 serve as an egg-cup for it. What became of this 

 egg is not known. If, as is asserted by some, the 

 bird is still existing, we may in time obtain a living 

 specimen, or if the capture alive is impossible, at 

 least the skin and bones. 



The Notornis Mantelli. — Another brevipennate 

 bird of the same country, the Notornis Mantelli, was 

 captured alive In the'year 1849 by some seal-hunters. 

 They were ashore in one of the coves of Dusky Bay, 

 the south-west extremity of Middle Island, when 

 observing the footprints of a large and strange bird 

 in the snow, they followed the trail, and at length 

 came in sight of the bird itself. After a long chase, 

 in which their dogs were very much distressed, they 

 came up with and caught it alive, in a gully behind 

 Resolution Island. They kept it alive on board 

 their schooner for some clays, and then killed and 

 skinned it, roasting and eating the flesh, which they 

 pronounced delicious. The skin was procured by 

 Mr. W. Mantell, and sent to England. This bird 

 stood about two feet high, the beak was short and 

 strong, wings very short and rounded, plumage 

 feeble, legs and feet more adapted for the land than 

 those of the ordinary rails ; plumage rich purple on 

 neck, breast, and abdomeD, back and wings decked 

 with green and gold, tail scanty aud white beneath ; 

 beak and legs when the bird was alive bright scarlet ; 

 this has since faded. 



An Enormous Egg. — In the Brighton Museum is 

 the cast of an egg of enormous size. This is in 

 reality a fac-simile of an egg of the ^Epiornis maximus 

 (a supposed extinct bird of Madagascar), in the 

 possession of Mr. Dawson Rowley, of Brighton, who 

 has published a pamphlet upon it. Some idea of 

 its comparative size may be gathered when it is 

 stated that it would take 148 fowl's eggs to equal it- 

 The idea respecting this egg is that it was laid by a 

 bird of far larger size than the Dinornis, and, if not 

 still existing in the unexplored parts of Madagascar, 

 that it has not been extinct more than a couple of 

 centuries. Professor Owen, speaking of the eggs 

 of this bird in a paper read before the Zoological 

 Society in 1S52, entitled " Notes on the Egg and 

 Young of the Apterix, and on the Casts of the Eggs 

 and certain Bones of the iEpiornis," thought it very 

 unscientific to estimate the size of a bird from the 

 size of its eggs, and proceeded to show, first, that 

 the egg of the Apterix might have led to a supposi- 

 tion of its having been laid by a much larger bird ; 

 and secondly, that from a comparison of the bones, 

 the iEpiornis did not equal in size the Dinornis 

 giganteus. 



