^THE # OOLOGIST.^ 



Vol. V, No. 2. 



ALBION, N. Y., FEB., 1888. 



Published Monthly, 

 50c Peu Yeak. 



The E(j(j of JEpt/oruis Maxim us. 



The Colosml Bird of Madagascar. 



BY GBORGE DAWSON ROWLEY, M. A. 



As I have lately added to my collection the 

 only egg of the iEpyornis maximus which 

 ever came to this country, I venture to 

 make a few remarks upon so interesting 

 an oological specimen, and of the bird 

 which laid it. 



Three different parts of the world appear to 

 have possed enormous tridactyle birds, each 

 of which opens out a great courser to our 

 view. North America points to the foot- 

 prints of the Brontozoum giganteum in the 

 sand stones of the Connecticut valley; New 

 Zealand boasts of her fifteen or twenty 

 species of Dinornis, of which the Moa 

 Dinornis giganteus* is the largest, and 

 Madagascar has lately revealed to us the 

 existence of the iEpyornis maximus. The 

 Brontozoum giganteum belongs to the 

 Triassic period of geology, the vast antiqui- 

 tj r of which, in some degree, weak- 

 ens our interest. For the mind's eye 

 retrospectively looking, takes dimly into its 

 vision an object seen through countless 

 ages of bygone time. The two Island 

 Giants are well ascertained to have existed 

 not very remotely, in fact in 'the Recent;' 

 and come home to our imaginations in all 

 their vivid reality, as things only of yester- 

 day, or perhaps even to-day, as is thought 

 by some, though of this I never have had 

 any very great hope. 



The most interesting discovery of the Arch- 

 yeopteryx macrurus Owen, in the quarries of 

 lithographic limestone at Pappenheim, near 

 Solenhofen, Bavaria, the only known speci- 



*'Manu is the general name for bird in 

 the groups south ot the equator, from Tahiti, 

 westward, to Samoa and the Friendly Islands. 

 The word Moa is strictly limited to the domestic 

 fowl.'— Vide AtTwrweum, N. 1885, Dec. 12, 1863. 



mem of which may now be seen in the 

 British Museum, places the osseous remains 

 of birds (though this differs from all known 

 aves in structure) much farther back in the 

 geological periods than was before sup- 

 posed, this rock being a member of the 

 upper oolite. Vide Sir Charles Lyell's 

 Antiquity of Man, p. 451, ch. xxii. As our 

 business at present is with the avi-fauna of 

 the last few hundred years, it is not proper 

 to diverge into a discussion of 'the bird 

 which never fieio.' 



There are three eggs of the iEpyornis 

 maximus extant, the largest and finest eggs 

 in the world. Paris possesses two and 

 some fragments, the one in my collection 

 is the third. When I purchased this, I 

 was assured that it exceeded in magnitude 

 the two others, which I find from a paper 

 entitled C'ompte Rendu des Seance de I'Aca- 

 demie des Sciences, No. 4, 27 Janvier J 851, 

 par M. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 

 tome xxxii. p. 101, to be the case.* 



Previous to its falling into my hands, it 

 had been shown at the meetings of the fol- 

 lowing societies in London: the Geologists' 

 Association, Zoological Society, London 

 Institution, and Geological Society. In the 

 newspapers its long diameter is stated to be 

 15 inches, but I found by actual measure- 

 ment, its real dimensions are as follows: 

 Shape au ellipse, major axis 12^ inches, 

 minor axis 9| inches, great circumference 

 34 finches, small circumference 29£ inches, 

 weight avoirdupois 3 lbs. 11| oz. nearly. 

 Contrast these with the following taken 

 from Ostrich eggs in my cabinets. Smooth 

 North African Ostrich: major axis 6£ inches 

 minor axis 5 inches, great circumference 



•The two Paris eggs appear to be as follows:— 

 ft. in. ft. in. 

 Great diameter - - l 1.3S60S l o.59sere 

 Small diameter - - - o 8.85843 9.05529 

 Great circumference - - 2 9.46519 2 9.0T14S 

 Less circumference - - 2 3.95327 2 4.34698 



