FEATHERED GIANTS 121 



The actual introduction of the ^pyornis to science 

 took place in 1834, when a French traveller sent Jules 

 Verreaux, the ornithologist, a sketch of a huge egg, say- 

 ing that he had seen two of that size, one sawed in twain 

 to make bowls, the other, traversed by a stick, serving 

 in the preparation of rice uses somewhat in contrast 

 with the proverbial fragility of egg-shells. A little later 

 another traveller procured some fragments of egg-shells, 

 but it was not until 1851 that any entire eggs were 

 obtained, when two were secured, and with a few bones 

 sent to France, where Geoffrey St. Hilaire bestowed 

 upon them the name of JEpyornis maximus (the great- 

 est lofty bird) . Maximus the eggs remain, for they still 

 hold the record for size; but so far as the bird that is 

 supposed to have laid them is concerned, the name was a 

 little premature, for other and larger species subse- 

 quently came to hand. Between the ^pyornithes and 

 the Moas Science has had a hard time, for the supply of 

 big words was not large enough to go around, and 

 some had to do duty twice. In the way of generic 

 names we have Dinornis, terrible bird; ^pyornis, 

 high bird; Pachyornis, stout bird; and Brontornis, 

 thunder bird, while for specific names there are robustus, 

 maximus, titan; gravis, heavy; immanis, enormous; 

 crassus, stout; ingens, great; and elephantopus, ele- 

 phant-footed — truly a goodly array of large-sounding 

 words. But to return to the big eggs ! Usually we look 

 upon those of the ostrich as pretty large, but an ostrich 

 egg measures 4K by 6 inches, while that of the ^pyornis 

 is 9 by 13 inches; or, to put it another way, it would 

 hold the contents of six ostrichs' eggs, or one hundred 

 and forty-eight hens' eggs, or thirty thousand humming 

 birds' eggs ; and while this is very much smaller than a 

 water-butt, it is still as large as a bucket, and one or two 

 such eggs might suffice to make an omelet for Gargantua 



