10 



The casts were beautifully made and coloured, and were exact 

 representations of the originals, which the Professor had examined 

 during a visit to Paris in July last. These were received at the 

 Garden of Plants in January last, and were described this day twelve- 

 month (January 27th) in a communication made by M. Isidore 

 Geoffroy-St.-Hilaire to the Academy of Sciences *. They had been 

 obtained by the master of a merchantman at the Island of Madagascar 

 in 1850, from the natives, who stated that one of the eggs had been 

 found, entire, in the bed of a torrent, amongst the debris of a 

 laud-slip : a second egg, with some fragments of bone, was subse- 

 quently found in a formation which is stated to be alluvial : a third 

 egg, which the natives had perforated at one end, and used as a 

 vessel, was also obtained. This egg was fractured in the carriage ; 

 the other two eggs arrived entire. 



They are nearly of the same size, but differ in shape, one being 

 shorter but a little thicker, and with more equal ends than the other. 

 The following are admeasurements of these eggs and of an Ostrich's 

 egg:— 



jEpyomis. Ostrich. 



Ovoid egg. Ellipsoid egg. 



Greatest circumference : ft. in. lin. ft. in. lin. ft. in. lin. 



Lengthwise 2 10 9 296 160 



Breadthwise 2 43 256 14 6 



Extreme length in a straight 



hue i 8 10 5 6 4 



M. Isidore Geoffroy estimates the larger of the two eggs to con- 

 tain 1 Q\ quarts, or the contents of nearly 6 eggs of the Ostrich, or 

 16 of the Cassowary, or 148 of the Hen, or 50,000 of the Humming 

 Bird. The portions of bones of which casts were exhibited consist 

 of the lower end of the right and left metatarsal bones and the upper 

 end of the right fibula. These are nearly equal in size to the cor- 

 responding parts of the skeleton of the Dinornis, as the following di- 

 mensions demonstrate : — 



JEpyornis, Dinornis giganteits. Casuarius. 

 in. lin. in. lin. in. lin. 



Extreme breadth across the 



trochlear condyles 5 5 6 2 3 



Transverse diameter of shaft 



6 in. above lower endf .29 23 11| 



Antero-posterior diameter of 

 shaft 6 inches above lower 

 end 13 15 7 



In neither Dinornis nor Mpyornis is the metatarsus perforated, as 

 in Casuarius and many other birds, above the interspace between the 

 two outer condyles : that interspace is simply deeper, or curved 

 higher in both. The outer trochlea, which is entire in both portions 

 of the metatarsi in ^^pyornis, is, in a marked degree, smaller than 



* Comptes Rendus de I'Academie des Sciences, Jan. 27, 1851. 

 t One-third the length of the entire bone in Dinornis giganteus. 



