Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal LifeHutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Science
Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life
Hutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Paleontology
In Australia the remains have been found of a bird probably related to
the Cassowaries, but at present imperfectly known. To this type of
struthious, or running bird, the name Dromornis has been given.
Now, 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 and perfect specimen of an egg of this bird, such as was
recently exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society, is said to
be worth £50. What the dimensions of Æpyornis were it is impossible to
say, and it would be unsafe to venture a calculation from the size of
the egg.[76] 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. 25, Gallery 2 (Geological Department), 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. Unlike New Zealand, Madagascar possesses
no living wingless bird. But in the neighbouring island of Mauritius
the Dodo has been exterminated less than three centuries ago. The
little island of Rodriguez, in the same geographical province, has
also lost its wingless Solitaire.
[76] From the size of a femur and tibia of _Æpyornis_ preserved in the
Paris Museum, it could not have been less in stature than the Dinornis
elephantopus of New Zealand.
It will thus be seen that we have three distinct groups of giant land
birds--the Moas, the Dromornis, and the Æpyornis,--occupying areas at
present widely separated by the ocean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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