286 



FOSSIL BIRDS 



out human intervention — those that are known to have met their fate 

 at the hand of man having been before treated (Extermination). 



At an uncertain but (geologically speaking) recent epoch there 

 flourished in Madagascar huge birds referable to the BaHtse. The 

 first positive evidence of their former existence was made known 

 in 1851 by Isidore Geotfroy St.-Hilaire, who gave the name of 

 ^■Epyornis maximus to a species represented by an enormous egg 

 sent a short time before to Paris, and the discovery soon after of 

 some bones of corresponding magnitude proved to all but thc- 

 prejudiced the kinship of the producer of this wonderful specimen, 

 which not unnaturally recalls the Roc of Arabian romance.^ Three 

 species of the genus have now been characterized from remains 

 found in the drifted sands of the southern part of that island. 



Next we may turn to our antipodes. In New Zealand Birds' 

 bones of gigantic size seem to have been first made known in 1838 

 by Polack, who resided there between 1831 and 1837, and in 1839 

 the fragment of one Avas placed by Mr. Rule in the hands of Sir R. 

 Owen, by whom it was described under the name of Dinornis, as will 

 be elsewhere found mentioned (Moa). In the same formations as 

 those which hold the relics of this Avonderf ul bird and its allies, 

 have been found, but less abundantly, remains of others scarcely less 

 remarkable, Fsevdapteri/x, near akin to the Kiwi ; and, belonging to 

 the Carinatx, there is Harpagornis, a Bird-of-Prey of stature sufficient 

 to make the largest Dinornis its quarry, then Cnemiornis, a big 

 Goose, flightless, and allied to Cereopsis, together with Aptornis 

 and Notornis, both also incapable of flight and belonging to the 

 Rallidx (Rail), and the latter still maintaining its existence in the 

 mountainous tract at the south-west of the South Island. Here 

 also must be mentioned the Australian Dromornis, which indicates 

 a distinct group of Batitse, {Cat. Foss. B. Br. Mus. p. 35), and Fro- 

 (joura, allied to the Crowned Pigeons (Goura). 



A great number of Birds' bones have been discovered in caves. 

 Those of Minas Geraes in Brazil yielded to the laborious explora- 

 tions of Lund a vast collection now in Copenhagen, which has been 

 described by the late Dr. 0. Winge (Fugle fra Knoglelmler i Brasilien, 

 Kjobenhavn : 1887, 4to), who determined at least 12G species, of 

 which all but three (and those of existing genera) survive, though 

 some two dozen no longer inhabit the district. Results more im- 

 j)ortant follow the investigation of cave-bones in Europe. From 

 France we have a large and extinct species of Crane, G-rus prirni- 



1 Sir Henry Yule well remarked of the story of the Roc, Rue, or Rukh, as told 

 hy Marco Polo, that the circumstance which for the time localized it in Mada- 

 gascar — the fable being widely spread — was perhaps some rumour of these great 

 fossil eggs. Some of the Malagasy are reputed to believe that the bird still 

 exists, but as they also attribute to it great power of flight, the belief must be 

 an invention (c/. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, ii. p. 350). — A. N. 



