Miscellanede 187 
Same group, and to determine with some accuracy the dimensions 
of this ornithological giant. Meanwhile, and with a view to answer 
the questions which have been addressed to us from all quarters, 
we shall restrict ourselves, on this last point, to some remarks, 
intended especially to prevent the exaggerations in which some 
might be apt to indulge. 
The long diameters, in the eggs of Z’pyornis and Ostrich which 
we have compared, are, in the one case, 32 centimetres, and, in the 
other, 16; they are therefore to one another as ::2:1. With 
respect to their bulk, it has been seen above that these eggs are 
nearly :: 6:1. Are we to suppose that the two birds have the 
same proportions as their eggs? The Ostrich being 2 metres high, 
the height of the Z’pyornis would then reach 4 metres. We think 
that it would be erroneous to admit this proportion. If we pos- 
‘sessed no other elements of determination than the eggs of the 
4 pyornis, we should have to recollect that, even amongst birds very 
nearly allied, the dimensions of the eggs are far from being exactly 
proportional to the size of the species which produce them: the 
estimate therefore which we have mentioned would for this reason 
alone be very doubtful. But we can go still further: we think that 
even at present we are warranted in reducing this estimate.* 
According to the comparison of the osseous parts, the A’pyornis 
must be a less slender bird and with legs proportionally shorter 
than the Ostrich. Possibly its size was, with relation to that of the 
latter bird, almost in the proportion of 6 to 1; but its body was not 
supported on limbs quite double the height. 
The estimate of the stature of the Apyornis, as founded on a 
comparison of that bird with other Rudipens than the Ostrich, with 
the Kmu, for example, confirms this inference. Calculated accord- 
ing to the long diameters of the eggs, it would give, for the #py- 
ornis, no longer 4 metres, but only about 38 metres, the Kmu being 
1:50 metre high, and its egg 0°125 metre long. From the compari- 
son of the terminal portion of the metatarsal in the Emu, and the 
corresponding part in the A’pyornis, the one measuring 5 centi- 
metres and the other 12 centimetres, we should deduce a result 
which agrees very well with the preceding: the height of the 
Ai pyornis would be about 3:6 metres. 
We thus arrive, in various ways, at this conclusion, that the 
stature of the Z’pyornis would be comprised between 3 and 4 metres, 
and consequently greater than that of the Dinornis giganteus itself ; 
since the stature attributed to this last by Prof. Owen? is a little 
less than 3 metres. We must remark, that the comparison of the 
extremity of the metatarsal of our A’pyornis with the same part in 
the Dinornis gives, in fact, a difference of dimension in favour of 
the first ; but this difference is very slight, and might be explained 
* Ard it would even be reduced, by a comparison of the eggs, made, not 
according to the long diameters, but after the transverse, or from the circum- 
ferences. ‘The egg of the pyornis is proportionally a little more elongated 
and less arched than that of the Ostrich. 
+ On Dinornis, in the * Transact. of the Zool. Society of London.” ‘The 
Jast of the plates of this remarkable memoir (pl. 30), Scale of altitude, gives the 
Dinornis giganteus a height of 93 feet ( English), that is to say, 2°S metres. 
‘This estimate is, however, lower than that which other authors admit. 
