50 
JOURNAL OP THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
THE GIANT EXTINCT BIRDS OF THE SOUTHERN 
HEMISPHERE. 
ABSTRACT OF PAPER BY MAJOR J. A. BRIGGS. 
(Read November 7th, 1878.) 
The lecturer commenced his paper by showing that the interest 
attaching to the distribution of extinct forms of life had greatly- 
increased, that the subject now under consideration had engaged 
the attention of many eminent geologists, anatomists, palaeon- 
tologists, and writers on various branches of natural history, and 
that but for the careful labours of such investigators many of the 
accounts of the early travellers and others who claimed to have 
seen, and had described these strange forms, when still existing 
species, would have been altogether discredited, while in fact many 
had been already set aside as purely fabulous. 
This was the case with the Roc, or Rukh, of Madagascar, 
(JEpyomis maxima) ; for Marco Polo's account of this wonderful 
bird, accompanied as it was with much of the characteristic 
colouring of this old writer, was thought a pure invention of his 
.imagination, whereas wo now have unmistakeable evidence that 
such a bird has existed on the island in historic times ; for not 
only does our own British Museum contain fragments of its bones, 
but also there are in various museums and private cabinets at least 
seven examples of the egg of this immense bird — these average 
more than thirty-three inches in circumference, and are capable of 
containing about two gallons. 
So also much of Leguat's well-known and somewhat fanciful 
description of the 'Solitaire' of Rodriguez (Pezohaps solitaria) 
has quite recently received additional support from the examination 
of a number of bones discovered on that island in 1865 by Mr. A. 
Newton, and from which entire skeletons have been built up, 
showing in the main the accuracy of Leguat's account; in par- 
ticular the great disparity as regards size in the sexes, and 
