186 Miscellanea. 
of the egg of the large bird of Madagascar is about 8% litres *, and 
that, to represent its size, it would require nearly 6 eggs of the 
Ostrich, 12 of the American Ostrich or Rhea, 164 of the Casowary, 
17 of the Emu, and 148 of the Hen. We may add, contrasting with 
each other the two extremes of the series, that this same bulk is 
equal to that of 50,000 eggs of the Humming bird. 
Are the eggs which have just come to us from Madagascar those 
of an immense reptile or of a gigantic bird ? This was the first 
question which suggested itself on their discovery. The examina- 
tion of their shells, the structure of which is similar to that which 
is observed in those of the large birds with rudimentary wings, and 
particularly of the Emu, would have sufficed for the solution of this 
question ; but it is given much more directly and completely by 
the bony fragments which have come with the eggs. One of them 
is the lower extremity of the large metatarsal bone of the left side: 
it has the three trochlear apophyses ; two of them are even almost 
untouched. It is enough to cast a glance upon this eminently 
characteristic piece to recognize that it belongs toa bird. More- 
over, on examining it with some attention, we soon arrive at the 
following conclusions. The great bird of Madagascar differs con- 
siderably from the Dodo ; it wanted that greatly developed thumb, 
by which the large bird of the Mauritius differed from the Struthio- 
nians and the Casowarians; this we are authorized to conclude 
from the non-existence, at the bottom of the large metatarsal bone, 
of the indention which corresponds with the insertion of the thumb 
in the Dodo and the other birds whose foot presents the same con- 
formation. In this point of view, the Madagascar bird approaches 
the Dinornis ; but it differs from it, as well as from the other allied 
genera recently discovered in New Zealand, in the very dilated and 
depressed form of the lower portion (and probably of the greater 
part) of the metatarsal bone.t 
As for the Ornithichnites, on the one part, and the Ostrich and 
other allied genera, no one would assuredly be induced to assimilate 
them to the gigantic bird of Madagascar, which henceforth should 
become the type of a new genus in the gronp of the Rudipens or 
Brevipens. We shall give to this genus the name of Apyornis,t 
and to our species the epithet of maximus. 
The consideration of the other osseous fragments will confirm, 
we may already assert, the inductions to which we have just been 
led by the examination of the great metatarsal—the portion to 
which we have first directed our attention, as eminently proper to 
characterize not only the class and order, but even the genus to 
which the precious fragments transmitted by M. Malavois are to be 
referred. Such a study will doubtless enable us to discuss (that 
which we could not as yet do with advantage) the value of the 
affinities which connect the Z'pyornis with the various genera of the 
* A litre is = 61 028 English cubic inches.—H. E. S. 
+ Immediately above the trochlear apophyses, this bone is near 1 decimetre 
across, and its thickness scarcely exceeds 3 centimetres. A decimetre higher 
up, we find 0-07 metre again for the transversal diameter, and only 0:0375 for 
the antero-posterior diameter. 
+ Alta or magna avis. 
