18 



THE NATURALIST. 



A paper upon the Egg of JEpyornis maxi- 

 mus, the Colossal Bird of Madagascar, 

 by Geo. Dawson Eowley, M.A., Lon- 

 don. Tiiibner and Co. 



The acquisition of a unique specimen, 

 and especially a specimen of sucli import- 

 ance as the egg of an unknown bird, ren- 

 dered more interesting as a link between 

 the geological and the present epoch, and 

 which has formed a matter for much learned 

 speculation, is undoubtedly worthy of 

 being publicly made known, and in the 

 paper before us Mr. Kowley has accurately 

 described the specimen of the egg oi^pyornis 

 maximus, of which he is the fortunate pos- 

 sessor, besides relating its history and 

 giving his ideas and speculations on the 

 bird which produced it. The size of this, 

 the largest egg in the world is enormous 

 compared with that of any known living 

 bird, being 12^ inches in its longest dia- 

 meter whilst that of a fine ostrich's egg is 

 only about six inches, an d the capacity being 

 in the proportion of about six to one ; with 

 the only other specimens extant which are 

 now in Paris came the lower portion of one 

 of the metatarsal bones found in the same 

 locality with one of the eggs ; this fragment 

 M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire thought, indicated 

 a bird shorter in the legs but thicker in the 

 body proportionately than the ostrich and he 

 placed the height of the specimen at from ten 

 to fourteen feet. "Whether this enormous 

 bird still lives in the interior of Madagascar 

 is scarcely matter of conjecture ; our 

 author thinks that if living within the last 

 two hundred years it only lingered, but 

 that it did remain till that time is shown 

 by the fact that some of the cartilages were 

 still adhering to the bones when found ; 

 time will no doubt by the discovery of 

 further remains of the bird elucidate this 

 question, and we trust that ere long a whole 

 skeleton, as in the case of Dinornis rohus- 

 tus, Owen. , will find its way to this country. 



/Society of Amateur Botanists. — At a 

 meeting of this Society, held on the 19th 

 ult., at 192, Piccadilly, W., the president, 

 M. C. Cooke, Esq., in the chair, the Pres- 

 ident read a paper from the " Natural 

 History Keview," apropos of M. Jordan's 

 new work, which is now exciting so much 

 attention ; he also gave a short resume of 

 the botanical contents of the various Nat- 

 ural History magazines. Specimens of 

 Hutchinsia petrcea, from the churchyard 

 wall at Eltham, Kent, were exhibited ; 

 and a few common spring flowers were laid 

 on the table. The meeting was well at- 

 tended. — B. 



Wycomhc Natural History Society. — A 

 meeting for the formation of the above 

 Society took place on Wednesday, the 26th 

 inst. , and was well attended. The interest 

 which the study of Natural History had 

 excited in one or two individuals, led them 

 to believe that others might be led to share 

 in their pleasures ; and the result has pro- 

 ved that they were not mistaken. The 

 aim of the Society will be to examine into 

 the local productions, and to endeavour to 

 gain some knowledge of the plants and 

 animals which exist in such profusion in 

 the neighbourhood. The Rev. T. H. 

 BroAvne, F. G. S. , was elected president, and 

 Mr. Hy. Ullyett, Secretary, for the present 

 year. The subscription is half-a-crown 

 per annum. It was resolved that there 

 shall be a meeting held once a month or 

 oftener ; in the summer for field rambles, 

 and in the winter for comparing notes, &c. 

 Seventeen gentlemen have already given 

 in their names as subscribers. — B. 



W arrington Field Naturalists' Society. — 

 The seventh monthly meeting of this so- 

 ciety was held on Wednesday evening, April 

 5th, 1865, Mr. B. Kendrick in the chair. 

 The chairman exhibited a number of speci- 

 mens of Helix ( rotundata 1 ) which he had 

 found in the stomach of a Starling ; most 

 of them were entire. The Secretary re- 

 corded an instance of the Boat-fly, Noto- 



