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of extinct species, which used to inhabit the islands from Mada- 
gascar to New Zealand even within the memory of man; and it 
is among these that wo become acquainted with by far the largest 
representatives of the family of giant birds. 
Marco Polo already, in the famous account of his travels, lo- 
cates the giant bird Rue of the myth upon Madagascar, and relates 
that the Great Khan of the Tartars having heard of this bird at 
the far off borders of the celestial empire, sent forthwith messengers 
to Madagascar. They really brought a feather back with them, 
9 spans long, and 2 palms in circumference, at which His Ma- 
jesty expressed his unfeigned delight. People laughed at this talc, 
as a fable, and like so many other relations made by Marco 
Polo on real facts, it was declared vain swaggering talk; — until 
tidings came establishing the fact, that very recently a gigantic 
bird was, and is still existing in Madagascar. This happened 
thus: Natives of Madagascar had come to Mauritius to buy rum; 
the vessels they had brought with them to hold the liquor were 
egg-shells, eight times as large as ostrich-eggs, or 135 times the 
size of a lien-egg; eggs containing 2 gallons. They related that those 
eggs were now and then found among the reeds, and that the 
bird also was occasionally seen. This was not believed either until 
the Museum at Paris in 1851 received such an egg from a landslip 
in Madagascar, measuring 2 3 / 4 feet in circumference, and holding 
27 2 litres; it was in a state as though it had been laid but very 
recently. Now Marco Polo’s fabulous Rue has become the Aepiornis 
maximus of Madagascar. Yet that colossal egg, the casts of which 
are exhibited in almost every Museum in Europe, besides some 
fragments of bones in the British Museum, is all, that has lii- 
therto been obtained of this bird. Whether it still lives, is uncer- 
tain. The natives assert to this day, that in the thickest forest, 
there still exists a giant bird; but that it is very rarely seen. 
East of Madagascar, upon the Mascarene Islands (Bourbon, 
Mauritius, Rodriguez), — from the bones collected by Mr. Bartlett 
upon Rodriguez in 1855, there are three species known, the Dronte 
or Dodo (Didus ineptus ) , the Solitaire ( PezophapsJ and a new, much 
