them because their existence
has not been manifested to us on any irrefragable authority."

[Illustration: Frontispiece showing the Bird _Rukh_.]

The circumstance which for the time localized the Rukh in the direction of
Madagascar was perhaps some rumour of the great fossil _Aepyornis_ and its
colossal eggs, found in that island. According to Geoffroy St. Hilaire,
the Malagashes assert that the bird which laid those great eggs still
exists, that it has an immense power of flight, and preys upon the greater
quadrupeds. Indeed the continued existence of the bird has been alleged as
late as 1861 and 1863!

On the great map of Fra Mauro (1459) near the extreme point of Africa
which he calls _Cavo de Diab_, and which is suggestive of the Cape of Good
Hope, but was really perhaps Cape Corrientes, there is a rubric inscribed
with the following remarkable story: "About the year of Our Lord 1420 a
ship or junk of India in crossing the Indian Sea was driven by way of the
Islands of Men and Women beyond the Cape of Diab, and carried between the
Green Islands and the Darkness in a westerly and south-westerly direction
for 40 days, without seeing anything but sky and sea, during which time
they made to the best of their judgment 2000 miles. The gale then ceasing
they turned back, and were seventy days in getting to the aforesaid Cape
Diab. The ship having touched on the coast to supply its wants, the
mariners beheld there the egg of a certain bird called _Chrocho_, which
egg was as big as a butt.[3] And the bigness of the bird is such that
between the extremities of the wings is said to be 60 paces. They say too
that it carries away an elephant or any other great animal with the
greatest ease, and does great injury to the inhabitants of the country,
and is most rapid in its flight."

G.-St. Hilaire considered the Aepyornis to be of the Ostrich family;
Prince C. Buonaparte classed it with the _Inepti_ or Dodos; Duvernay of
Valenciennes with aquatic birds! There was clearly therefore room for
difference of opinion, and Professor Bianconi of Bologna, who has written
much on the subject, concludes that it was most probably a bird of the
vulture family. This would go far, he urges, to justify Polo's account of
the Ruc as a bird of prey, though the story of it's _lifting_ any large
animal could have had no foundation, as the feet of the vulture kind are
unfit for such efforts. Humboldt describes the habit of the condor of the
Andes a