398 The Outline of Science 



since the reconquest of the ground-level, there have been birds 

 which have discarded the faculty which was the making of their 

 race; over and over again, also, they have paid the extreme pen- 

 alty. Sometimes size and strength, sometimes an aquatic life, 

 sometimes an island home, has been the factor giving security in 

 place of flight, but with new conditions the exchange has fre- 

 quently proved to be unfortunate : too often, in recent cases, the 

 new condition has been the advent of modern Man and his 

 civilisation. 



Several flightless species are indeed numbered among the 

 birds which have become extinct within historic times. Among 

 the Maoris of New Zealand there was a traditional knowledge 

 of a giant running bird which they called "Moa," but which they 

 had exterminated before the arrival of white men ; from the bones 

 and other remains which have been found in some quantity the 

 birds appear to have been large members of the Ostrich tribe, 

 one species standing 12 feet in height. A related bird of similar 

 history was the JEpyornis of Madagascar, which forms the sub- 

 ject of the delightfully imaginative story by Mr. H. G. Wells. 

 This bird is sometimes identified with the legendary "Roc" of the 

 Arabian Nights; not only its remains but also its eggs have been 

 found, and an egg in the British Museum (Natural History) 

 measures more than 13 inches in length and O 1 /^ in breadth. 



The Dodo 



"Extinct as the Dodo" has become a proverbial expression. 

 The saying refers to a bird allied to the Pigeons, about the size of 

 a Swan, and of clumsy and uncouth appearance. It was quite 

 flightless, and lived in security in Mauritius until the island was 

 visited by Dutch sailors in the sixteenth century. The hogs which 

 these men brought with them were largely responsible for the 

 subsequent rapid extermination of the birds, and now the Dodo 

 is known only from some remains in museums and from the quaint 

 drawings and descriptions of the early voyagers. 



