FLIGHTLESS BIRDS 



176 that the eggs of the Ostrich and of the 

 Dinornis are not nearly so big in proportion to 

 the size of the bird as is that of the Apteryx, 

 which lays a truly gigantic egg considering the 

 size of its body. The Moa of Madagascar is 

 known as the ^pyornis and laid the biggest egg 

 known — much bigger than that of the biggest 

 New Zealand Moa — ^resembhng the Apteryx in 

 the proportionate sizes of its egg and its body. 

 It was this very large egg which inflamed the 

 imagination of ancient navigators and led to 

 the vast exaggeration, which thrills the reader 

 with wonder and terror, in the accounts of the 

 " roc " given by Sinbad the Sailor in the Arabian 

 Nights. 



Flightless birds necessarily, unless they are, 

 like the penguins, great swimmers, must get 

 destroyed and become extinct when man arrives 

 on the scene. The dodo, of which I spoke in 

 my first lecture (p. 26), was a close ally of the 

 pigeons, but had lost its power of flight owing 

 to the fact that it had no dangerous enemies in 

 the island of Mauritius. It had become a 

 heavy, slow running, though powerful ground 

 bird. As soon as man arrived, and with him 

 the pig, the flightless dodo was doomed to 



243 



