EXTINCT HIPPOPOTAMI 213 



Besides the remains of hippopotami, Mr Rosaas, for many 

 years a missionary of the Norwegian Society, and stationed at 

 Antsirab6, obtained considerable quantities of the bones of 

 extinct gigantic birds. It is about eighty years ago (circa 

 1834 and 1835) since it became known to naturalists, through 

 the discover} 7 of portions of massive leg-bones and fragments of 

 enormous eggs, that there was evidence of the former existence 

 in Madagascar of large birds. For a quarter-century after that 

 date, the dislike of the heathen queen to all foreign influence 

 prevented fuller investigations of a scientific character. But 

 since the year 1861 further researches, and excavations made 

 in widely separated localities, have shown that several species 

 of these great birds existed until a comparatively recent period 

 in many parts of the island. It was evident that they were 

 flightless, and were allied to the ostrich, and still more closely 

 to the recently extinct Dinornis of New Zealand. The generic 

 name of JEpyornis was given to these birds, of which several 

 species were discovered, ranging in size from that of a bustard 

 to a bird exceeding an ostrich in height and also in the massive 

 character of the skeleton. The largest species was accordingly 

 named JEpyornis maximus. Subsequently, the remains of still 

 larger birds were discovered and these were called &. titan and 

 &. ingens, the largest of them being about ten feet in height. 

 More recent and exact examination has shown that the twelve 

 species which had been formed must be reduced to a smaller 

 number, as some of the lesser kinds have been proved to be 

 young and immature forms of the larger species. From the 

 collection of hundreds of bones, and, in a very few cases, com- 

 plete skeletons, it is now clear that several species of these great 

 birds once roamed over the marshes and valleys of Madagascar, 

 as the ostrich does still in Africa, and the cassowary in Australia 

 and some East Indian islands. 



The egg of one of the species, probably of the largest one, is 

 the largest of all known eggs, its longer axis being twelve and 

 a quarter inches, and the shorter one nine and three-eighths 

 inches ; it thus had a capacity equal to six ostrich eggs, and to 

 one hundred and forty-eight of those of the domestic fowl. 2 

 From the marks of cutting with a sharp instrument seen on 

 some of the bones, it seems highly probable that these great 

 birds, as well as the hippopotamus, gigantic tortoises, and other 



