CHAPTER XIII 



THE ELEPHANT-BIRDS 



(Order jEpyornithiformes) 



FEW years after the discovery of the Moas in New Zealand another 

 race of gigantic extinct birds came to light in Madagascar, and in a 

 peculiar manner. Some natives visiting the Mauritius for the purpose 

 of buying rum brought with them as receptacles to contain the liquor 

 two enormous egg-shells. These eggs, together with a portion of the metatarsus of 

 a bird, fell into appreciative hands, and were sent to Paris, where M. I. G. Saint- 

 Hilaire brought them before the Paris Academy of Sciences, giving the bird the name 

 of jEpyornis maximus, signifying literally "the bird as big as a mountain." As 

 may be supposed, this discovery 'excited great scientific interest, and, as Stejneger 

 says, "brought to mind the old story of the famous Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, 

 who located the Rue or Roc, the giant bird of Arabian tales, upon Madagascar." 

 Shortly after this the question was taken up seriously by Professor Bianconi, 

 who attempted to prove its truth, since it was thought possible that Polo actually 

 might have heard rumors of the existence of these immense eggs and the pre- 

 sumably gigantic bird that laid them. These vague speculations are perhaps not 

 to be much wondered at, as the eggs were larger than any before dreamed of, 

 measuring more than thirteen inches by nine and one half inches and having 

 a capacity of more than two gallons. This discoveiy stimulated exploration, 

 which has resulted in bringing to light vast quantities of broken egg-shells, occa- 

 sional entire shells, and a considerable number of bones, from which have been 

 described two quite distinct genera and thirteen nominal species of Elephant- 

 birds. It has been determined that they ranged over the whole of the southern 

 half of Madagascar, but were apparently most abundant in the south and the 

 southwestern portions. The bones are found principally in the beds of ancient 

 shallow lakes, those along the coast being very salt, those of the interior of course 

 fresh, and now used by the natives as rice-gardens. The eggs, however, appear 

 to be found only or very largely in the sand-dunes along the coast. On this point 

 Mr. J. T. Last, who made extensive explorations in the interests of the Zoologi- 

 cal Society of London, says: "During all my explorations, though I have found 

 the bird's bones a long way inland, I have never seen any fragments of eggs 

 either with them or inland anywhere. Everywhere along the south and south- 

 west coast fragments are to be found in abundance, especially on the hillsides 

 about St. Augustin's Bay. Bushels of broken egg-shells could be gathered in this 

 district with but little trouble. From this I judge that the birds used to live 



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