WINGLESS BIRDS. 257 



ences, eggs of a bird coming from Madagascar that liad a capacity 

 of two gallons. Some specimens of these eggs may be seen in the 

 galleries of the Paris Museum, and still larger eggs have been 

 found. The museum in London has one with a capacity exceed- 

 ing eleven quarts, or equivalent to two hundred and twenty hen's 

 eggs, or more than seventy thousand humming birds' eggs. It was 

 thought at first that the bird which laid these gigantic eggs was 

 still living, for natives of Madagascar spoke of having seen a bird 

 of colossal size that could throw down an ox and make a meal of 

 it. Such, however, were not the ways of the bird called the 

 Epiornis, which had no talons or wings, and fed on vegetable sub- 

 stances. The description by the celebrated traveler Marco Polo 

 of a great flying bird of prey, called a roc, has no reference to the 

 Epiornis. M. Grandidier has demonstrated that this bird no longer 

 exists in Madagascar, and that if man ever knew it the stories with 

 marvelous details which the savages hand doAvn from generation 

 to generation make no mention of it. "We owe to M. Grandidier, 

 M. Milne-Edwards, and Major Forsyth what is known of the his- 

 tory of this large wingless bird, which resembles the Dinornis in 

 several points. If its size was proportioned to that of its eggs it 

 should have been twice as large as the Dinornis. It was not, how- 

 ever, but constituted a family represented by very diverse forms 

 and of variable size, though never much exceeding eleven feet. 

 The head was similar in appearance to that of the Dinornis, but 

 the surface of the forehead was furrowed wdth wrinkles and cavi- 

 ties, indicating the presence of a crest of large feathers. A curious 

 peculiarity was the opening of the Eustachian tube directly on 

 the exterior. The cervical vertebrae are very numerous, while the 

 sternum is much reduced. It is a flat bone, broad but very short, 

 especially in the median part. The wing also has suffered a great 

 regression, for it comprises only a thin, short rod, the humerus, 

 and a small osseous mass representing all the other bones of the 

 wing stuck together. The Epiornis had no wings externally visi- 

 ble. The bones of the feet were, on the other hand, of consider- 

 able size, and indicate that the bird that possessed them was larger 

 than the Dinornis. 



The Epiornis, according to M. Milne-Edwards, frequented the 

 borders of waters, keeping among the reeds along lakes and rivers, 

 for its bones are found associated with those of turtles, crocodiles, 

 and a small hippopotamus. It most probably nested in the low 

 plains around lakes. 



Just as the Apteryx among birds, and the bison and the beaver 

 among mammals, so the Dinornis and the Epiornis have been de- 

 stroyed as man has extended his abode and his domination. 



TOL, LTI. — 21 



