48 NATURAL HISTORY OF JilRJJS. 



or 17 cuHsowarv's eggs, or G ostriuli eggs! Tlio leiiy^tli iiicasiiri-'il 1*2.0 iiu-lii-s, the 

 breaiUh S.G iiiclies, ami the shell hail a thiekness of 0.11 of an iiieli. No woiuler that 

 the natives eni|iloyed tliem for tlifft-rent domestic |)ur|ioses. In fact, the lirst kiiowl- 

 Cfige of the eggs was received wlien some Madagascar natives came to 3Iauritius to 

 buy rum, bringing yEjiiomis eggs with them to hold the lii|iior. This k-cl to inquiries, 

 and two eggs and some fragments of bones were obtained liy Mr. 3Ialavoi.s, and sent 

 to Paris. Since that time other remains, which have furnished the material for 

 Alphonse Milne Edwards's investigations, published in 18GS) and 1873, were discovered 

 by (irandidier and others. 



It has been shown that the earlier calculations of the .size of ^'Epioruis were much 

 too high, and that ^E. maj-liniis in reality was not taller than a large African ostricli, 

 notwithstanding the enormous size of the egg, and tliat tlie smallest of the three 

 species known, yE. modeatits, was not much lai-ger than the great bustard. The more 

 astounding is the stoutness and massivencss of the hind extremities, which were still 

 more 'ele]ihantine ' than those of the elc|)hanl-footed inoa. The characters of the 

 bones at once refer the ele]ihaiit-birds of ^Madagascar to the neighborliood of the 

 ostriches and nioas, particularly the former; and, as they seem to have had only three 

 toes, Professor Uianconi's idea that they were rapacious, or rather condor-like, birds 

 — the rue was said to be a bird of that order — is not well founded. An additional 

 j)roof is that the microscoi)ic e.vamination of the egg, according to Xathusius, shows 

 an appro.ich to that of StriUltio, and bears no resemblance to that of the larger 

 ra]itores. 



The oliief characters of the bones known are the remarkable widening and flatten- 

 ing of tlie metatarsal bone; the enormous size of the leg-bone, which is over 25 inches 

 long, with a circumference at its u](])er extremity of IS inches, while the lione at its most 

 contracted j)ortioii is only G inches round, thus sliowirig a singular enlargement of the 

 articular ends; it differs from the same bone in the Dinornithoideie in having no 

 osseous liridgc over the groove of the extensor muscle of the toes, in this rcsjiect 

 agreeing with the existing Struthiones. Tlie thigh-bone was of singular pro])ortions, 

 being of extraordinary tliiekness, while in length it does not measure one half metre 

 than its lower extremity ; it was pneumatic, contrary to what exists in Ap(cri/.r and 

 Dinorhi'.t. 



The natives of Madagascar assert that a few of the giant birds are still alive in 

 some of the most secluded and unex|)lored parts of the island, and occasionally an 

 excithig report of some traveler having been in tlie neighborhood of them reaches us 

 through the newspajiers, but the probability is that they are totally exterminated, and 

 without doubt l)y the hand of man, as the famous Freiicli traveler Alfonse (4randi<iier 

 emphatically assures us; Ijut there are reasons to believe tliat the re])ort of some 

 having been still alive not more than two hundred years ago is not entirely unfounded. 

 The whole history of the yE|piornithes, the enormous, massive Struthious birds, con- 

 fined to a large i.sland in the southern seas, and extingui.shed by the action of man, is 

 a remarkable countcrjiart of that of the moas on New Zealand. 



OiiDEH III. — APTERYGES. 



The English naturalists who, about seventy years .ago, received tlie first kiwi 

 skin from New Zealand through Cajitain Barclay, of the ship 'Providence,' were 

 greatly jiorplexed as to the relationship of that singular bird, not larger than a hen, and 

 wliich had no wings, was covered with hair-like feathers, jtossessed a long beak with 



