638 Marvels of the Universe 
perhaps as a further measure of safety, commonly associates with herds of zebras and antelopes, 
just as the South American Rhea herds with deer and guanachos. Not the least of its many 
peculiarities is the transformation which the foot has undergone, the toes having been reduced to 
two, and there are signs which seem to show that sooner or later the outer of these two will also 
vanish ; for it is much the smaller, and has been so far reduced in length as to suppress the claw. 
The Ostrich and the Tinamou alone among their kind possess a tail, or, rather, tail-feathers, and 
in the Tinamou these are hardly distinguishable from the rest of the plumage. These have 
degenerated, and in most cases vanished, in sympathy, so to speak, with the loss of flight. 
Australia harbours two kinds of Ostrich: a Cassowary and an Emu, the first-named haunting 
the scrub, the last the open country. But in both the wing is far more degenerate than in the 
Ostrich or Rhea. In the Emu it must be carefully sought for among the feathers of the body. All 
that remains is a stump of a few inches long, and the same is true, as regards size, in the case of the 
Cassowary. Its presence is revealed, however, by a number of long, porcupine-like quills. These 
represent the barrels of once functional quill-feathers, but for some mysterious reason they have 
become solid, and the rest of the feather has vanished, though in young birds a thin terminal, vane- 
bearing portion of the feather is present. Later, it is shed. Such quills can serve no useful purpose, 
and their hypertrophied condition is inexplicable. Though flightless, these great birds have con- 
trived to pass from the mainland of Australia into New Guinea and the adjacent islands. Clearly 
this migration must have taken place during the time when these now separated areas formed a 
continuous land surface. Curiously enough, the Australian species is dull-coloured, like the Emu, 
while the island species, which are numerous, have shed the feathers of the head and neck, and 
developed in their stead, over the bare skin, the most vivid hues of red, yellow, blue, and violet. 
Photo by] [H. J. Shepstone. 
THE EGG OF THE /EPYORNIS. 
The largest egg known. The AEpyornis is supposed by some to be identical with the “Roc’’ mentioned by the traveller 
Marco Paolo. An egg in the British Museum has a circumference of two feet two inches. It is here shown with an Ostrich 
egg on the left-hand and a hen’s egg on the right. 
