Quite as remarkable as the Moas are the immense, massive-limbed forms of the Family AEPYORNITHIDAE, supposed by many to be identical with the "Ruc" or "Roc" of the Venetian traveller Marco Polo, and of the _Arabian Nights_. If this is the case, the size of the birds and their eggs must have been absurdly exaggerated, since the largest species known probably stood about seven feet high, and the egg is certainly not as big as a butt; nevertheless, the fact of the Roc being accredited to Madagascar makes it probable enough that the fables were engrafted upon _Aepyornis_, which was an inhabitant of that island. The eggs were first brought to the notice of ornithologists by Strickland in 1849, while soon afterwards Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire obtained two of them, with some fragments of bones.[34] These eggs, which exceed all others in magnitude, measuring some thirteen inches by nine and a half, have now been obtained in considerable numbers, with a large quantity of fossil remains of the birds themselves; and in consequence about twelve species have been indicated, and a second genus, _Mullerornis_.[35] It is supposed that some of them were in existence not more than two hundred years ago. The most salient points of their structure are the long, stout legs, with four toes and broad flat metatarsi, the apparently rudimentary humeri, the absurdly short keel-less sternum, and the frontal pits, indicating a large crest, comparable to that supposed to have existed in certain of the Dinornithidae.[36] The shell of the eggs, some of which contain two gallons, is used by the natives to hold liquor, and is slightly pitted. * * * * *