286 FOSSTE 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 /tatitz. The 
first positive evidence of their former existence was made known 
in 1851 by Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, who gave the name of 
Aipyornis 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 the 
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 was placed by Mr. Rule in the hands of Sir R. 
Owen, by whom it was described under the name of Dinoriis, as will 
be elsewhere found mentioned (Moa). In the same formations as 
those which hold the relics of this wonderful bird and its allies, 
have been found, but less abundantly,remains of others scarcely less 
remarkable, Pseudapteryx, near akin to the Ktwr; 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 LRatite (Cat. Foss. B. Br. Mus. p. 35), and Pro- 
goura, allied to the Crowned Pigeons (GOURA). 
A great number of Birds’ bones have been discovered in caves. 
Those of Minas Gerdes in Brazil yielded to the laborious explora- 
tions of Lund a vast collection now in Copenhagen, which has been 
described by the late Dr. O. Winge (Fugle fra Knoglehuler 1 Brasilien, 
Kjébenhavn: 1887, 4to), who determined at least 126 species, of 
which all but three (and those of existing genera) survive, though 
some two dozen no longer inhabit the district. Results more im- 
portant follow the investigation of cave-bones in Europe. From 
France we have a large and extinct species of Crane, Grus primi- 
1 Sir Henry Yule well remarked of the story of the Roc, Rue, or Rukh, as told 
by 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 (cf. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, ii. p. 350).—A. N. 
