228 
EXTINCT MONSTERS 
Row, 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 
specimen of an egg of this bird will fetch a good price. 
What the dimensions of .^pyornis 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. II., Gallery 2, may be seen a 
tibia and plaster casts of other bones; also two entire eggs, 
many broken pieces, and one plaster cast of an egg found in 
certain surface deposits in Madagascar. In the same case may 
be seen bones of the Dodo from the Isle of Mauritius. 
It will thus be seen that we have three distinct groups of giant 
land birds — the Moas, the Dromornis, and the ^pyornis, — 
occupying areas at present widely separated by the ocean. 
This raises the difficult but very interesting question, how they 
got there; and the same applies to their living ancestors. The 
ostrich proper, Struthio camelus, inhabits Africa and Arabia ; 
but there is evidence from history to show that it formerly 
existed in Beluchistan and Central Asia. And, going still further 
1 From the size of a femur and tibia of ./dCpyornis preserved in the Paris 
Museum, it could not have been less in stature than the Dinornis maximus of 
New Zealand. 
