186 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 



of the tide which these accumulated waters would occasion, com- 

 bined with the rivers which fall into the Baltic, when checked by 

 the following flood-tide, would cause deposits in the form of a bar 

 tailing towards Sweden ; and that an increase to these deposits 

 would form shoals, drifts, and islands, and eventually a long sand- 

 bank in outline, like the country of Denmark. He further considers 

 that the tide being by these means prevented from entering the 

 Baltic, may account for the subsidence of the waters of the Gulf of 

 Bothnia, better than can the upheaval of the northern part of Scan- 

 dinavia. 



The author then remarked that the great shoal of the North Sea is 

 the Dogger Bank, and that its peculiar form is produced by the 

 meeting of the cotidale waves, of which he traces the course. After 

 bearing testimony to the value of the Admiralty chart of the southern 

 portion of the North Sea, made under the direction of the late Cap- 

 tain Hewitt, he reverted to the importance of contouring such maps, 

 in order to obtain something* like a correct notion of the bottom of 

 the sea ; and in conclusion expressed a hope that the Admiralty will 

 be induced to continue the survey of the North Sea, so well begun 

 by Captain Hewitt. 



ZOOLOGY. 



14. On the Bones and Eggs of a Gigantic Bird in Madagascar. 

 — M. Saint Hilaire has recently communicated a notice to the French 

 Academy, of the existence, at Madagascar, of a gigantic bird, entirely 

 new to the scientific world. The discovery [of the evidence] was 

 made in 1850, by M. Abadie, captain of a merchantman. During 

 a stay at Madagascar, he one day observed, in the hands of a native, 

 a gigantic egg, which had been perforated at one of its extremities, 

 and used for domestic purposes. The account which he received 

 concerning it soon led to the discovery of a second egg^ of nearly 

 the same size, which was found perfectly entire, in the bed of a tor- 

 rent, among the debris of a landslip which had taken place a short 

 time previously. Not long afterwards was discovered in alluvia of 

 recent formation, a third egg, and some bones, no less gigantic, which 

 were rightly considered as fossil, or rather, according to an expres- 

 sion now generally adopted, as sub-fossil. These were all sent to 

 Paris ; but one of the eggs was unluckily broken. The others ar- 

 rived in safety, and M. Saint Hilaire has presented them to the 

 Academy. These eggs differ from each other in form : one has its 

 two ends very unequal ; the other approaches nearly to the form of 

 an ellipsoid. 



The dimensions of the latter are : — Largest diameter 13| inches ; 

 smallest diameter 8?, in. ; largest circumference, 33J in. ; smallest 

 circumference, 28J in. The thickness of the shell is about the 

 eighth of an inch. This great Madagascar egg would contain about 

 seventeen English pints, and its gross volume is six times that of 



