CURSORES. C 9 



which the fragments belonged were supposed to be about the size 

 of a tea cup. In connection with this fact, interest attaches to 

 a discovery recently made in Madagascar. "In a report to the 

 French Academy of Science, M. St. Hillaire describes three fos- 

 sil eggs from Madagascar, and small bones belonging to the same 

 bird. The Captain of a merchant vessel trading to Madagascar, 

 one day observed a native using, for a domestic purpose, a vase 

 which much resembled an egg, and upon an examination proved 

 to be one. The native stated that many such were to be found 

 in the interior of the island, and eventually procured the eggs 

 and bones exhibited by M. St. Hillaire. The largest of these 

 eggs is equal in bulk to 135 hen's eggs, and will hold two gal- 

 lons of water. M. St. Hillaire proposes the name of Epiornis, 

 for the monster biped of which these marvelous eggs and bones 

 are the first evidence brought under the notice of naturalists." 

 Casts of these eggs have been made and are to be seen in vari- 

 ous museums. 



Gnaf.hodon, (Gr. gnathon,a jaw ; odous, a tooth.) is a genus of 

 birds in the South Sea Islands, described by Sir William Jardine, 

 from a specimen which was presented to him. 



The upper mandible of the beak is strongly hooked, as in the 

 Dodo; the under one is deeply notched; hence the name. The 

 only known species, G. strigirosfris, (owl-beaked,) is rather 

 larger than a partridge, having the upper parts of a deep chest- 

 nut red, and the under of a glossy green black. Mr. Gould sup- 

 poses it to feed on fruit or grass. 



Didunculus, is a name given to a genus of birds found by 

 Com. Wilkes, in the South Sea Islands, and thought to be the 

 same as the preceding. 



The DODO, Didus, about whose proper place much doubt has 

 existed, should perhaps have a position in the present family. 

 To this bird, as now extinct, reference has already been made, 

 (see section on Birds,) but fossil remains of it have been discov- 

 ered, and there is abundant historical and other evidence of its 

 former existence. Clusius, in a work published in 1605, gives 

 a figure of a Dodo copied from a rough sketch taken by a Dutch 

 navigator, who had seen the bird while on a voyage to the Mo- 

 luccas in 1598. Bontius, (1658,) translated by Willoughby, 

 describes it as " for bigness of mean size between an ostrich and 

 a turkey, from which it partly differs in shape and partly agrees 

 with them, especially the African ostriches, if you consider the 

 rump, quill and feathers, so that it was like a pigmy among them, 

 if you regard the shortness of its legs. It has a great, ill-favored 



