MONSTER FXJG. 235 



of existing birds. It is one of the most marvellous facts in 

 Natural History, that within the limited area of New Zealand 

 so many of these huge birds should have been associated to- 

 gether ; and the fact becomes all the more remarkable when we 

 consider how widely the existing species of the family are now 

 separated from each other over the surface of the globe. 



There is reason to believe, however, that New Zealand was not 

 alone in the possession of these huge wingless birds, the egg of an- 

 other species having been discovered in the Island of Madagascar. 

 The size of this monster may be inferred from the fact that its 

 egg would hold the contents of 6 eggs of the Ostrich, 16 eggs of 

 the Cassowary, or 148 eggs of the common Fowl. It is highly 

 probable that these huge birds have lived contemporaneously with 

 man. In New Zealand the natives have a tradition that the bones 

 belong to a bird of the Eagle kind, which has now become 

 extinct, and to which they give the name of Moa : moreover 

 the bones are decidedly recent, being by no means mineralized, 

 and retaining a large proportion of their animal matter. 



Let us pass from these huge birds now dead and gone, unless 

 indeed, some of them should turn up alive by and by in Mada- 

 gascar, which is not altogether improbable to a huge Antelope, 

 still alive and available to good purpose. The Eland is the 

 prince of Antelopes, and stands almost as high as an Ox ; and, 

 what is more to the purpose, he is even better than an Ox in a 

 gastronomic point of view. 



" In shape and general aspect," says Sir Cornwallis Harris, 

 " he resembles a Guzerat Ox, not unfrequently attaining the 

 height of nineteen hands at the withers, and absolutely weighing 

 from fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds ! By all classes in 

 Africa the flesh of the Eland is deservedly esteemed over that of 

 any other animal. Both in grain and colour it resembles beef, 

 but far better tasted and more delicate, possessing a pure game 

 flavour, and exhibiting the most tempting looking layers of fat 

 and lean, the surprising quantity of the former ingredient with 

 which it is interlarded exceeding that of any other game quad- 

 ruped with which I am acquainted. The venison fairly melts 

 in the mouth ; and as for the brisket, that is absolutely a cut for 

 a monarch !" 



This noble and " promising " animal was first imported into 

 England in the year 1840 by the late Earl of Derby, by whom 



