GIANT BIRDS. 
235 
New Zealand, specimens of which may be seen at the Natural 
History Museum, at the end of the long gallery devoted to living 
birds. This bird, however, has a long pointed bill for probing in 
the soft mud for worms, whereas the bill of the Moa was short 
like that of an ostrich. 
Another difference between the two is that, while the Kiwi 
still retains the rudiments of wing-bones, the Moa had hardly a 
vestige of such. 
In Australia the remains have been found of a bird probably 
related to the Cassowaries, but at present imperfectly known. 
To this type of struthious, or running bird, the name Dromornis 
has been given. 
Now, it is a remarkable fact that remains of another giant 
bird and its eggs have been found on the opposite side of the 
great Indian Ocean, namely, in the island of Madagascar, the 
existence of which was first revealed by its eggs, found sunk in 
the swamps, but of which some imperfect bones were afterwards 
discovered. One of these eggs was so enormous that its 
diameter was nearly fourteen inches, and was reckoned to be as 
big as three ostrich eggs, or 148 hen’s eggs ! This means a 
cubic content of more than two gallons ! The natives search for 
the eggs by probing in the soft mud of the swamps with long iron 
rods. A large and perfect specimen of an egg of this bird, such 
as was recently exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society, 
is said to be worth £,^0. What the dimensions of Hipyornis 
were it is impossible to say, and it would be unsafe to venture a 
calculation from the size of the egg.^ The reader who wishes 
to see some of the remains of this huge bird may be referred to 
the Natural History Museum. In wall case No. 25, Gallery 2 
(Geological Department), may be seen a tibia and plaster casts of 
other bones ; also two entire eggs, many broken pieces, and one 
' From the size of a femur and tibia of ALpyornis preserved in the Paris 
Museum, it could not have been less in stature than the Dinornis elephantopus 
of New Zealand. 
