122 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



himself. About thirty eggs of the ^pyornis have been 

 discovered and a number of them have found their way 

 to this country, with the natural result that their 

 market price has dropped from five or six hundred 

 dollars to one hundred and fifty or less. 



The size of an egg is no safe criterion of the size of the 

 bird that laid it, for a large bird may lay a small egg, 

 or a small bird a large one. Comparing the egg of the 

 great Moa with that of our ^pyornis one might think 

 the latter much the larger bird, say twelve feet in 

 height, when the facts in the case are that while there 

 was no great difference in the weight of the two, that 

 difference, and a superiority of at least two feet in 

 height, are in favor of the bird that laid the smaller 

 egg. The record for large eggs, however, belongs to 

 the Apteryx, a New Zealand bird smaller than a hen, 

 though distantly related to the Moas, which lays an 

 egg about one-third of its own weight, measuring 3 by 

 5 inches; perhaps it is not to be wondered at that the 

 bird lays but two. 



Although most of the eggs of these big birds that 

 have been found have literally been unearthed from the 

 muck of swamps, now and then one comes to light in a 

 more interesting manner as, for example, when a 

 perfect egg of ^pyornis was found afloat after a hurri- 

 cane, bobbing serenely up and down with the waves 

 near St. Augustine's Bay, or when an egg of the Moa 

 was exhumed from an ancient Maori grave, where for 

 years it had lain unharmed, safely clasped between the 

 skeleton fingers of the occupant. 



More recent in point of discovery, but older in point 

 of time, are the giant birds from Patagonia, which are 

 burdened with the name of Phororhacidse, a name that 

 originated in an error, although the error may well be 

 excused . The first fragment of one of these great birds 



