192 WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG 



bones, with feathers attached to them, have been dis- 

 covered, and from these feathers, combined with a long 

 neck and small head, we gather that the Moa must have 

 resembled an emu or cassowary in appearance. 



When New Zealand was first discovered the Maoris 

 found the country, greatly to their surprise, to be nearly 

 empty of land animals belonging to the mammal class, 

 although it swarmed with running birds. Some of them, 

 like the great Dinornis, were as tall as an elephant ; but, 

 large or small, their wings were always very tiny and 

 quite useless, and their bones, developed by much running, 

 particularly strong. 



The nearer we get to the history of the earth as we 

 know it, the more numerous become the birds, some of 

 which, though now extinct, have lived on till recent years. 

 The remains of a huge bird, called the Epiornis, which in 

 size rivalled the great Dinornis, have been found among 

 the soil brought down by the rivers of Madagascar. 

 Very often a huge egg has lain beside these bones, 

 measuring thirteen or fourteen inches across. This must 

 surely have been the ' roc's egg,' which the Genius refused 

 to give to Aladdin, which was six times as big as that of 

 an ostrich, and capable, says Professor Owen, of containing 

 148 eggs of a hen ! 



Travellers in the Indian Ocean during the seventeenth 

 century have left us some interesting tales about a short 

 fat bird, then inhabiting Mauritius and the neighbouring 

 islands, known as the Dodo. And it might have been 

 living there yet, had it not been for men's insane passion 

 for killing. The Dodo was rather bigger than a swan, 

 with a short stumpy tail, decorated, like the little wings, 

 with a bunch of soft feathers like those of an ostrich. 

 Its legs were very short also, and this fact, combined with 

 the weight of its body, rendered it difficult for the Dodo to 

 escape from its pursuers. The flesh seems to have been 

 more appreciated by Dutch sailors than English ones, if 

 we are to judge from the description of our explorer, who 



