Miscellanea. 185 
captain of a merchantman. During a stay at Madagascar,* M. 
Abadie one day observed, in the hands of a Madagascan, a gigantic 
egg, which the natives had perforated at one of its extremities, and 
which they employed for various domestic purposes. The accounts 
which M. Abadie received from the Madagascans soon led to the 
discovery of a second egg, of nearly the same size, which was found, 
perfectly entire, in the bed of a torrent, amongst the debris of a 
Jand-slip which had taken place a short time previously. Not long 
afterwards was discovered, in alluvia of recent formation, a third 
egg, and some bones, no less gigantic, which were rightly considered 
as fossil, or rather, according to an expression now generally adopted, 
as subfossil. All these objects were immediately forwarded, unfor- 
tunately without the necessary precautions, from Madagascar to the 
Ile de la Réunion, and thence to Paris: one of the eggs arrived 
broken into a multitude of fragments, but it can be restored; the 
two others are in a perfect state of preservation. 
The objects which I have the honour to place before the Academy 
are the two entire eggs, a piece of the shell of the broken egg, and 
some osseous fragments, one of which especially, as will be seen, is 
of great interest to science. 
The two eggs which are now before the Academy differ little in 
size, but much in form. One of them has the two ends very 
unequally convex ; the other represents almost exactly an ellipsoid 
of revolution. The following are the dimensions :— 
Ovoidal egg. Ellipsoid egg. 
metre. metre. 
Long diameter ......scccccseee. O'S44 0°32 
Transverse diameter ......... O-225 0:23 
Large circumference ......... 0°85 0-84 
Small circumference ......... 0-71 072 
c.m. 
SIZE sivcels soso ecet eeuasanens Seeens s 0:008887 
The thickness of the shell is about 3 millimetres. 
We shall give comparatively the principal measures, taken or 
calculated in the same manner, with the Ostrich and the other 
large birds of the same group, and with the Hen :— 
Ostrich. Rhea. Casowary. Emu. Hen. 
m. m. m. m. m. 
Large circumference 0:46 0:35 0-365 0335 0-16 
Small circumference 0-425 0:30 0:29 0°27 0.14 
cm c.m. c.m. cm. c.m. 
SIZE ..seeeeeeeeeseeeee 0°001527 0006735 0°000532 0:00526 0-000060 
The thickness of the shell, larger in proportion, is in that of the 
Ostrich 2 millimetres. It is 1 millimetre with the Casowary, and 
less with the other birds. 
According to the preceding measures, it appears that the capacity 
* On the south-west coast of the island, according to M. Malavois, It will 
be seen hereafter that another egg has been discovered at the north-west 
extremity of the island. 
+ In English measure the ovoidal egg is about 154 inches by 8% inches.— 
S. 
Q 
