22 



THE OOLOGIST. 



18f inches, less circumference 17 inches. 

 A rough South African Ostrich has major 

 axis 5f inches, minor axis 5 inches, great 

 circumference 17| inches, less circumfer- 

 ence 16^ inches. The former of these was 

 picked out as a very large egg, but the axes of 

 the iEpyornis give nevertheles a proportion 

 of nearly two to one. Are we, then, to make 

 the former double the altitude of the Os- 

 trich, viz. : 14 or 16 feet? This question 

 has been dealt with by M. Geoffroy Saint- 

 Hilaire, from whose writings I derive chiefly 

 my knowledge of the bird and its bones. 

 He is of opinion that we cannot go that 

 length. With the Paris eggs came the 

 lower portion of the metatarsal of the left 

 leg, found in the same locality with at least 

 one of the eggs. This, he says, indicates a 

 bird with shorter legs in proportion, than 

 the ostrich, yet with a much thicker body, 

 and he puts the height of the Madagascar 

 bird at between three metres and "four me- 

 tres, i.e. 9 ft. 10.11237 in. and 13 ft, 

 1.48316 in. and leans to the belief, that it 

 slightly exceeded the New Zealand species 

 in altitude. He computes the contents of 

 his eggs at about 8f litres, i.e. about 7 

 quarts 1 pint, and equal to those of 6 os- 

 triches, 17 emeus, or 148 hens, a statement 

 which Professor Owen confirms, but justly 

 says, that eggs of birds* are not always in 

 proportion to the size of the species that 

 laid them. It is true this is most strinking 

 ly the case in Apteryx Mantelli or kiwi, the 

 egg of which, as stated by Dr. Scalter, 

 weighs 14J^ oz. while the living bird is 60 

 oz., so that the egg is nearly equal to one- 

 fourth of the bird. The cause of this excep- 

 tional case can be explained, it is not com- 

 mon in the brevipennes; the example of the 

 Talegalla or brush turkey can hardly ad- 

 duced. Certainly eggs do vary. It has 

 been considered that the weight of a do- 

 mestic fowl equals 48 cf her eggs, while 

 that of an ostrich is equivalent to a hundred 

 of her's. See Wild Sports of the World, p. 



"In reptiles the eggs are extraordinarily small. 

 In the case of saurians Alligator Lucius, and 

 Crocodilus vulgaris. It is astonishing how such 

 huge bodies could ever spring from such small 



eggs. 



323. Nevertheless in general we are pretty 

 safe, I think, in taking the eggs of the 

 Strathiones as being nearly in proportion 

 to the birds which laid them. In a new 

 publication: A First Year in Canterbury 

 Settlement, by Samuel Butler, p. 139, the 

 the author states 'that a gentleman living 

 at Kaikoras possesses a Moa's egg, it is ten 

 inches by 7 inches, and was discovered in 

 a Maori grave. ' 



It is curious that the Turks and Arabs 

 also appear to place ostrich eggs over their 

 tombs, and I believe certain African tribes 

 do t he same. But to return — as there were 

 so many species of the Dinornis, it is im - 

 possible to say that the egg spoken of by 

 Mr. Butler belongs to Dinornis giganteue. 

 The authenticated egg of this species has, 

 therefore, still to be found. It is perfectly 

 clear to an oologist, I think, that the em- 

 bryo contained in a space of 10 by 7 inches, 

 would never equal, in bulk and stature the 

 bird produced from an embryo in an 

 ellipse, whose axes are 12\ by 9~| inches. 

 Neither is it, perhaps, quite satisfactoiy to 

 judge of a bird by a portion of its metatarsal* 

 alone. The bones of at least half-a-dozen 

 are necessary because we have to take into 

 consideration the sexes, which may vaiy a 

 little, the age, if adult or not, and that va- 

 riation of size, plumage, &c. on vhich Mr. 

 Darwin builds his theory of natural selec- 

 tion, t In many tribes this is considerable. 

 It is possible, nay most probable, that the 

 single Paris metatarsal fragment is not that 

 of the largest and finest iEpyornis, it may 

 not be even an average one, while we aie 

 contrasting it with the specimens of Dinor- 

 nis picked out of hundreds. My own 

 impression therefore is, that the argument, 

 according to our present most imperfect 

 data, tends to show, that the iEpyornis 

 maximus exceeds the Dinornis in bulk, if 

 not in height, The large footprints of the 



* The hone to which the toes are articulated., 

 —Owen. 



t Dr. S. Thomson, in his book on New Zealand, 

 vol. 1. p, 32, certainly speaks of an egg with di- 

 ameters 12 inches and 9 inches, found with a 

 human skeleton. He gives a circumference 27 

 Inches. These dimensions are much smaller 

 than those of my specimen. 



