FEATHERED GIANTS 123 



to come to light was a portion of the lower jaw, and this 

 was so massive, so un-bird-like, that the finder thought 

 it belonged to one of the great ground sloths and dubbed 

 it Phororhacos, and so it must remain. 



It is a pity that all the large names were used up 

 before this group of birds was discovered, and it is 

 particularly unfortunate that Dinornis, terrible bird, 

 was applied to the root-eating Moas, for these Pata- 

 gonian birds, with their massive limbs, huge heads and 

 hooked beaks, were truly worthy of such a name; and 

 although in nowise related to the eagles, they may in 

 habit have been terrestrial birds of prey. Not all the 

 members of this family are giants, for as in other groups, 

 some are big and some little, but the largest among them 

 might be styled the Daniel Lambert of the feathered 

 race. Brontornis, for example, the thunder bird, or as 

 the irreverent translate it, the thundering big bird, 

 had leg-bones larger than those of an ox, the drumstick 

 measuring 30 inches in length by 2% inches in diameter, 

 or 4% inches across the ends, while the tarsus, or lower 

 bone of the leg to which the toes are attached, was 16% 

 inches long and 5K inches wide where the toes join on. 

 Bear this in mind the next time you see a large turkey, 

 or compare these bones with those of an ostrich: but 

 lest you may forget, it may be said that the same bone of 

 a fourteen-pound turkey is 5% inches long, and one inch 

 wide at either end, while that of an ostrich measures 

 19 inches long and 2 inches across the toes, or 3 at the 

 upper end. 



If Brontornis was a heavy-limbed bird, he was not 

 without near rivals among the Moas, while the great 

 Phororhacos, one of his contemporaries, was not only 

 nearly as large, but quite unique in build. Imagine a 

 bird seven or eight feet in height from the sole of his big, 

 sharp-clawed feet, to the top of his huge head, poise this 



