II AEPYORNITHIDAE STEREORNITHES 43 



of grass and leaves. We are told that the eggs found with the 

 remains were dark green, light green, or yellowish, but the last 

 colour at least probably refers to faded specimens. 



VI. AEPYORNITHES. 



Quite as remarkable as the Moas are the immense, massive- 

 limbed forms of the Family Aepyornithidae, supposed by many 

 to be identical with the "Rue" or " Eoc " of the Venetian 

 traveller Marco Polo, and of the Arabian Nights. If this is 

 the case, the size of the birds and their eggs must have been 

 absurdly exaggerated, since the largest species known probably 

 stood about seven feet high, and the egg is certainly not as big 

 as a butt ; nevertheless, the fact of the Eoc being accredited to 

 Madagascar makes it probable enough that the fables were 

 engrafted upon Aepyornis, which was an inhabitant of that island. 

 The eggs were first brought to the notice of ornithologists by 

 Strickland in 1849, while soon afterwards Isidore Geoffrey St.- 

 Hilaire obtained two of them, with some fragments of bones. 1 

 These eggs, which exceed all others in magnitude, measuring 

 some thirteen inches by nine and a half, have now been obtained 

 in considerable numbers, with a large quantity of fossil remains 

 of the birds themselves ; and in consequence about twelve species 

 have been indicated, and a second genus, Mullerornis. 2 It is sup- 

 posed that some of them were in existence not more than two 

 hundred years ago. The most salient points of their structure 

 are the long, stout legs, with four toes and broad flat metatarsi, 

 the apparently rudimentary humeri, the absurdly short keel-less 

 sternum, and the frontal pits, indicating a large crest, compar- 

 able to that supposed to have existed in certain of the Dinorni- 

 thidae. 3 The shell of the eggs, some of which contain two gallons, 

 is used by the natives to hold liquor, and is slightly pitted. 



It will be remembered that, in the arrangement here followed, 

 Dr. Gadow placed the STEREORNITHES under the head of Neor- 

 nithes Eatitae, though not under that of Eatitae in the restricted 



1 Ann. Sci. Nat. (3) xiv. 1850, pp. 205-216. 



2 Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, C. R. Ac. Sci. cxviii. 1894, pp. 122-127; 

 Andrews, Geol. Mag. 1894, p. 18 ; id. Ibis, 1896, pp. 376-389. 



3 Parker, Tr. N. Z. Inst. xxv. 1892, p. 3. 



