Scientijic Intelligence — Zoolojij. 203 



ZOOLOGY. 



35. Description, hy Captains Cook and Flinders, of Birds'' Nests 

 of Enormous Size on the coast of New Holland. By Professor Edward 

 Hitchcock. — In lecturing on the huge footmarks of sandstone in the 

 Connecticut valley, I have been in the habit, for many years, of read- 

 ing to my classes, as the poetry of the subject, some statements ftom 

 the 12th volume of the AthenEcum, or Spirit of the English Magazines, 

 (p. 48), respecting enormously large birds and birds' nests. As 

 some of these statements arc manifestly fabulous, it never occurred 

 to me till to-day to inquire whether any of them were true. I was 

 led to make the inquiry, probably, by the astonishing discoveries of 

 Professor Owen, respecting the danger bird of New Zealand ; and 

 the result is, that I have almost persuaded myself that, ivith the 

 help of Captains Cook and Flinders, I have found the nest of the 

 Dinornis on the coast of New Holland. These navigators have given 

 the following statements in their published voyages. I quote Cook's 

 account from Kerr's collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. xiii., p. 

 318. It was Cook's first voyage. Lizard Island is near the north- 

 east coast of New Holland, not fiir from Cape Flattery, and in about 

 15°S. lat. 



"At two in the afternoon," says Cook, '• there being no hope of 

 clear weather, we set out from Lizard Island to return to the ship, 

 and in our way landed upon the low sandy island with trees upon 

 it, which we had remarked on our going out. Upon this island we 

 saw an incredible number of birds, chiefly sea-fowl ; wo found also 

 the nest of an eagle with young ones, which we killed ; and the nest 

 of some other bird, we knew not what, of a most enormous size. It 

 was built with sticks upon the ground, and was no less than six-and- 

 twenty feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches high. To 

 this spot we gave the name of Eagle Island," &c. 



Captain Flindei's found two similar nests on the south coast of 

 New Holland in King George's Bay. Not having his work at hand, 

 I quote from the Quarterly Review for October 1814, his descrip- 

 tion of these nests. 



" They were built upon the ground, from which they I'ose above 

 two feet, and were of vast circumference and great interior capa- 

 city ; the branches of trees and other matter of which each nest was 

 composed, being enough to fill a cart.'' 



Now I suppose from the character of Captains Cook and Flinders, 

 we may place implicit confidence in the truth of these accounts. In- 

 deed, Cook was accompanied to Eagle Island by Sir Joseph Banks. 

 Equally certain is it that no known bird but the Dinornis would have 

 built .so enormous a nest. I am led, therefore, almost irresistibly, 

 to inquire, whether the Dinornis may not be an inhabitant of the coast 

 of New Holland, and still ahve ^ Even if extinct upon New Zea- 

 land, it may have remained longer in the warmer climate of New 



