were now undeniably dead. The people could not feed them with waffles
and hominy cakes in the gardens of the institute. The savants wrangled
on the anatomical differences and resemblances of the Bunyip and the
Beathach; still the critters were, to the general mind, only stuffed
specimens, though unique. The African five-horned brutes (though in
quieter times they would have scored a triumph) did not now appeal to the
heart of the people.
At last came the day when, in the huge crowded amphitheatre, with Te-iki-
pa by his side, Jones Harvey addressed the congregation. First he
exhibited a skeleton of a dinornis, a bird of about twenty-five feet in
height.
'Now,' he went on, 'thanks to the assistance of a Maori gentleman, my
friend the Tohunga Te-iki-pa'--(cheers, Te-iki bows his
acknowledgments)--'I propose to exhibit to you _this_.'
With a touch on the mechanism he unrolled the valves of a gigantic
incubator. Within, recumbent on cotton wool, the almost frenzied
spectators perceived two monstrous eggs, like those of the Roc of Arabian
fable. Te-iki-pa now chanted a brief psalm in his own language. One of
the eggs rolled gently in its place; then the other. A faint crackling
noise was heard, first from one, then from the other egg. From each
emerged the featherless head of a fowl--the species hitherto unknown to
the American continent. The necks pushed forth, then the shoulders, then
both shells rolled away in fragments, and the spectators gazed on two
fledgling Moas. Te-iki-pa, on inspection, pronounced them to be cock and
hen, and in healthy condition. The breed, he said, could doubtless be
acclimatised.
The professors of the museum, by Jones Harvey's request, then closely
examined the chickens. There could be no doubt of it, they unanimously
asserted: these specimens were living deinornithe (which for scientific
men, is not a bad shot at the dual of deinornis). The American continent
was now endowed, through the enterprise of Mr. Jones Harvey, not only
with living specimens, but with a probable breed of a species hitherto
thought extinct.
The cheering was led by Captain Funkal, who waved the Stars and Stripes
and the Union Jack. Words cannot do justice to the scene. Women
fainted, strong men wept, enemies embraced each other. For details we
must refer to the files of _The Yellow Flag_. A _plebiscite_ to select
the winner of the McCabe Prize was organised by that Journal. The Moas
(bred and exhibited by Mr. Jones Harvey) simply romped in, by 1,732,901
votes, the Mylodon being a bad second, thanks to the Irish vote.
Bude telegraphed 'Victory,' and Miss McCabe by cable answered 'Bully for
us.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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