156 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. 



measures three feet in its longer circumference, and 

 2 \ feet in girth ; its cubic contents being estimated at 

 rather more than two gallons. The leg-bone of this 

 bird has no bony bridge at its lower end, and the 

 cannon bone (of which only a portion is known) is as 

 wide as that of the Elephant- footed Moa, but much 

 longer and thinner. The natives search after the eggs 

 of this bird by probing for them in the soft mud of 

 the swamps with long iron rods. 



The Moas, Drornornis, and ^Epyornis indicate, then, 

 three totally distinct groups of Giant Birds ; and since 

 their various habitats occupy islands on both sides of 

 the Indian Ocean, it is a fair presumption that their 

 common ancestors originally inhabited some part of 

 the great continental mass of the Old World. Support 

 is afforded to this hypothesis by the occurrence of the 

 Ostriches on the west, and the Cassowaries and Emus 

 on the eastern side of the same great ocean. More- 

 over, there is historic evidence to the effect that 

 Ostriches, which are now confined to Africa and 

 Arabia, formerly existed in Baluchistan and Central 

 Asia ; and since their fossil remains occur in the 

 Pliocene deposits of Northern India, there is little 

 doubt that at least this group of Giant Birds originated 

 in the northern part of the Old World. Again, the 

 Indian deposits already mentioned have also yielded 

 remains of a bird differing from the Ostrich in having 

 three in place of two toes, and thereby agreeing with 

 the Cassowaries and Emus, to which it was doubtless 

 allied, and thus indicating that these birds likewise 



