THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 



27 



AEPYORNIS 



In the Pleistocene of Madagascar occur the bones of a giant bird, 

 Aepyornis, of the family Aepj^ornithidae, which lives in tradition. These 

 were great ostrich-like birds almost or quite as large as their distin- 

 guished relatives, the great moas of New Zealand. Three or four species 



Fig. 81 — Giant toothed diver, Hcsperornis 

 reijiilis, from the Cretaceous of Kansas. 

 Restored by Hutchinson. Height 5 to 

 6 feet. 



Fig. 82 — Hesperornis regalis, restored by 

 Shufeldt. 



Fig. 83 — Restoration of Hesperornis by Lucas. Observe 

 position of feet which are supposed to have worked 

 sideways instead of forward and back under the body 

 in the usual way. 



•of the genus are known, headed, in point of size, by Aepyornis maximus, 

 which stood rdne to ten feet high and equaled the weight of the moa 

 bird Dinornis, which stood eleven to twelve feet high. The egg of this 

 bird is the largest known, being thirteen inches long and nine to ten 

 inches in A\'idth with a capacitj^ of over eight quai'ts, and is the especial 

 admiration of zoologists. (See Fig. 84.) For the sake of comparison 

 it has been estimated that the cubic content is equivalent to that of 

 six ostrich's eggs, or one hundred and fifty hen's eggs, or thirty thou- 



