INTRODUCTION OF BIRDS. 123 
comparatively late period. The same remarks apply to a 
winged giant the eggs of which have been brought from 
Madagascar. This bird must have much exceeded the dimen- 
sions of the moa, at least so far as we can judge from the egg, 
which is eight times as large as the average size of the ostrich 
ego, or about one hundred and fifty times that of the hen. 
But though we have no evidence that man has exterminated 
many species of birds, we know that his persecutions have 
caused their disappearance from many localities where they 
once were common, and greatly diminished their numbers in 
others. The cappereailzie, Tetrao urogallus, the finest of the 
grouse family, formerly abundant in Scotland, had become 
extinct in Great Britain, but has been reintroduced from 
Sweden.* The ostrich is mentioned, by many old travellers, as 
common on the Isthmus of Suez down to the middle of the 
seventeenth century. It appears to have frequented Palestine, 
_ Syria, and even Asia Minor at earlier periods, but is now rarely 
found except in the seclusion of remoter deserts. 
* The cappercailzie, or tjiider, as he is called in Sweden, is a bird of singu- 
lar habits, and seems to want some of the protective instincts which secure 
most other wild birds from destruction. The younger Lestadius frequently 
notices the tjider, in his very remarkable account of the Swedish Laplanders. 
The tjider, though not a bird of passage, is migratory, or rather wandering 
in domicile, and appears to undertake very purposeless and absurd journeys. 
‘* When he flits,” says Lestadius, ‘‘he follows a straight course, and some- 
times pursues it quite out of the country. It is said that, in foggy weather, 
he sometimes flies out to sea, and, when tired, falls into the water and is 
drowned. It is accordingly observed that, when he flies westwardly, towards 
the mountains, he soon comes back again; but when he takes an eastwardly 
course, he returns no more, and for a long time is very scarce in Lapland. 
From this it would seem that he turns back from the bald mountains, when 
he discovers that he has strayed from his proper home, the wood; but when 
he finds himself over the Baltic, where he cannot alight to rest and collect 
himself, he flies on until he is exhausted and falls into the sea.”—PETRUS 
LassTAbius, Journal af férsta aret, ete., p. 325 
+ Frescobaldi saw ostriches between Suez and Mt. Sinai. Viaggio in Terra 
Santa, p. 65. See also VANSLEB, Voyage d’ Egypte, p. 103, and an article in 
PETERMANN, Mitiheilungen, 1870, p. 380, entitled Die Verbreitung des Strausses 
in Asien, 
