J rowings of Satieties. 
BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY. 
DECEMBEE 14, 1853. 
Dr. Stevelly in the chair. 
Professor M‘Coy read a paper “On Experiments to determine the Effect of Pres¬ 
sure in Modifying the Temperature of Eusion, with their Applications to Geology 
in which he drew attention to the great apparent difficulties of reconciling the pre¬ 
cision of the equinoxes and rotations of the earth’s axis, with theoretical views sup¬ 
posed to follow from a consideration of experiments on central heat. He then 
described the instruments and mode of procedure adopted by Mr. Hopkins, of Cam¬ 
bridge, in his recent successful experiments, which proved that the great mass of 
the earth might be solid, although heated far above the temperature required to fuse 
all known rocks at the surface. 
DECEMBEE 21, 1853. 
Mr. Patterson, President, in the chair. 
Mr. A. O’D. Taylor read a paper on “ The Gigantic Birds formerly found in 
the Mauritius and adjacent Islands.” Having glanced at the subject of geogra¬ 
phical distribution, he mentioned the iEpyornis of Madagascar, a bird which M. 
St. Hilaire, of Paris, supposes to have been from 9f feet to 13 feet in height. 
This conclusion had been arrived at from inspecting some immense eggs and bones 
found in the alluvial deposits of that island. The Dodo of the Mauritius was next 
noticed ; it was exterminated by the year 1679, and now the only sources of infor¬ 
mation regarding it are the rude descriptions of unscientific voyagers, three or four 
oil paintings, and a few bones. It appears that two species of brevi-pennate birds 
were to be found in Bourbon during the 17th century ; one of which was men¬ 
tioned by a French visitor in 1669, and by him called the “ Oiseau Bleuand 
another species was described by a Captain Castleton, who touched there in 1613. 
It is also known that a very large bird, called from its habits the “ Solitaire,” in¬ 
habited the neighbouring island of Rodriguez, in the early part of the 18th cen¬ 
tury. These four last-named species seemed to have been destroyed chiefly, if not 
entirely, by the agency of man, from whose destructive powers escape was impos¬ 
sible ; for these birds had no means of defence in the shape of dangerous talons or 
otherwise; they were supplied with merely rudimentary wings, and the isolated 
tracts over which they ranged were exceedingly limited. It cannot, however, be 
positively affirmed that the -ZEpyornis of Madagascar is extinct, as that island has 
been scarcely explored in any parts by scientific men, and it is not impossible that 
the AZpyornis, or some allied species, may yet be discovered in the lonely central 
tracts. In illustration of the subject, Professor Carlile exhibited some bones ot the 
“ Dinornis,” sent from New Zealand to Dr, Dickie. Professor Carlile explained 
the peculiarity of structure in these osseous fragments, their formation, indicating a 
more simple or less advanced stage of development than now obtained amongst 
VOL. I. Q 
