the Hen, or fifty
thousand of the Humming bird.[18]

The fragments of bone indicated a bird of the same natural affinities as
the New Zealand colossi, and of dimensions not widely remote from
theirs. Professor Owen thinks that it did not exceed in height or size
_Dinornis giganteus_, and that there is a probability that it was
slightly smaller. The Madagascar bird has been named _AEpyornis
maximus_.

The fragments of the egg of the New Zealand bird (still uncertain as to
the species to which it is to be referred) shew that the shell was
absolutely thinner, and therefore relatively _much_ thinner than that of
the Ostrich's egg; the air-pores, too, have a different form, being
linear, instead of round, and the surface is smoother. In these
qualities, the New Zealand egg resembles that of the _Apteryx_; in the
thickness and roughness of the egg of _AEpyornis_ there is more
similarity to those of the Ostrich and Cassowary. The colour of the
Madagascar egg is a dull greyish yellow; but it is possible that this
may be derived from the soil in which it has long been imbedded. The
fragments of the New Zealand egg are white, like the eggs of the
_Apteryx_ and Ostrich: those of the Emu and Cassowary are light green.

The willing fancy suggests the possibility that, in an island of such
immensity as Madagascar, possessing lofty mountain-ranges, covered with
the most magnificent forests, where civilised man has only yet touched
one or two spots on the seaward borders, but where these slight
explorations have educed so many wondrous animals, so many strange forms
of vegetable life, the noble _AEpyornis_ may yet be stalking with giant
stride along the fern-fringed hill-sides, or through the steaming
thickets; though in the more contracted area of New Zealand its equally
ponderous cousins, the _Dinornis_ and the _Palapteryx_, may have sunk
beneath the persevering persecutions of man.

Yet another item of evidence bearing on the recent if not present
existence of these great fowls has recently come to light:--the most
interesting discovery that one of the genera whose fossil remains had
been found associated with theirs is really extant in New Zealand. I
refer to the _Notornis_.

At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, held on the 13th
November 1850, Dr Mantell made the following communication relative to
this discovery:--

"It was in the course of last year, on the occasion of my son's second
visit to the south of th