792 ROG. 
St. Hilaire exhibited to the French Academy of Sciences (Comptes 
Rendus, xxxii. pp. 101-107; Eng. transl. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vii. 
p. 161) some fossils—two eggs and a few fragments of bone, which 
had just been brought to Paris from Madagascar by Capt. Abadie, 
—referring them to a bird which he named Aipyornis maximus and 
declared to be a “ Rudipenne ”—or allied to the Ostrich. He soon 
after republished (Ann. Sc. Nat. Zool. ser. 3, xiv. pp. 205-216) his 
original remarks, together with some additional information of con- 
siderable interest to the effect that, in 1832, Sganzin, who resided 
for some years in Madagascar, sent thence to Jules Verreaux, then 
at Capetown, a full-sized drawing of a gigantic egg, but this was 
lost at sea with all his collections; while in 1834, Goudot, another 
traveller in that island, obtained some fragments of egg-shells which 
Gervais had mentioned in 1841 (Dict. Sc. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 524) as 
resembling Ostriches’. In 1861, Prof. Bianconi (Mem. Accad. Bologna, 
xil. pp. 61-76) seriously took up the question of the identity of the 
Roe, described by some one to Marco Polo (for the great Venetian 
himself did not see it); of the “Chrocko” (which is only another 
form of the same word) mentioned on the map of Fra Mauro (1450) 
whose egg was as big as a butt; and of the dpyornis of ornithology, 
declaring the latter to be no Struthious bird but a Vulture—an 
opinion which he steadily maintained throughout a long series 
of papers. .The matter has therefore attracted some scientific 
attention, especially as other remains have come to light; but none 
can doubt after the masterly treatise of MM. Alphonse Milne- 
Edwards and Grandidier (Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, xii. pp. 167-196, 
pls. 6-16) that the original determination was right; and therefore, 
according to the views taken in the present work, a group or Order 
Aipyornithes should be recognized as of equal rank with the 
Struthiones and others that form the Subclass Ratira. A consider- 
able number of eggs, which from their enormous size—being the 
largest eggs known—are conspicuous objects, and no small number 
of fossil bones have now been discovered, and have been attributed 
to five species of which AY. maximus, medius and modestus are 
indicated by the eminent naturalists last named, who think it 
possible that one of the smaller species may have survived long 
enough for a tradition of its existence to be transmitted, especially 
since some of the bones found shew marks of a cutting instrument, 
evidently the work of a human hand and presumably made on the 
recently-killed bird! Sir Henry Yule (Book of Ser Marco Polo, i. 
pp. 346-354) treated the question in his usual happy style and, 
1 They cite froma French work of fiction published in 1696 under the title 
of Furterianaa passage describing enormous birds inhabiting Madagascar and 
there carrying off sheep and human beings, so that the latter had to walk about 
with tame tigers for their own protection! This modern embellishment of the 
old Arabian stories is hardly an improvement if probability is to be regarded. 
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