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Show 892 MR. G. DAWSON ROWLEY ON JEPYORNIS. [Nov. 28, The following papers were read:- 1. On the Egg of JEpyornis, the Colossal Bird of Madagascar. By GEORGE DAWSON ROWLEY, M.A., F.Z.S. &c The first notice of the remains of this bird was the paper in 1851 by M . Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire (Comptes Rendus, no. 4, 27 Janvier). Succeeding that came Professor Owen's in the ' Proceedings ' of this Society (1852, p. 9). In 1863 Professor Bianconi put forth a long and painstaking discussion upon the fragments of the metatarsal which were discovered with the other bones. I had intended to have a full translation of this made from the Italian ; but the result of the first part was not equal to m y expectations; I therefore did not go on to the next, but believe Professor Bianconi arrives at the conclusion that Mpyornis might be allied to the Vultures- a notion which I do not think I need dwell upon. In 1864, having purchased the only specimen of the egg which, as far as I know, ever came to England, I published a brochure on the subject. This year, in August, I met M . Alfred Grandidier in Paris, and had some conversation with him respecting AHpyornis maxima; and be in September read a communication on it to the French Academy, displaying at the same time fresh fragments of eggs, which he had himself dug up at Cape Sainte Marie in Southern Madagascar, as shown in the m a p which he has drawn and sent me, along with some of the same fragments and his article upon them. I now have the satisfaction of placing these before you. They are nine in number, one having been apparently broken in coming. It is to this broken portion to which I wish to direct your attention. The granulation is, in a marked degree, different from that of the other pieces ; the difference may easily be seen by the eye alone, and is still more apparent through a magnifier. The air-pores, which in the other specimens seem much like a comet with a tail, are here only small indentations without any tail; the shell also is only half the thickness, is much finer, and presents an aspect so diverse that the difference is detected by the most careless observer, even when the pieces are all mixed. These fragments belonged to the egg of a much smaller bird, the embryo of which required less strength in the shell. Yet the colour, quality, and locality of that shell clearly point to a bird of the same family as AHpyornis maxima-in short, a smaller and more delicate AEpyor-nis. For this species I propose the name Mpyornis grandidieri. The number of eggs oi A^ipyornis discovered up to this time I take to be as follows :-Four in the museum of the Jardin des Plantes, of which I exhibit casts of the two first found, sent m e by M . E. Verreaux, and also casts of the three portions of bone discovered with them. Two more eggs were shown by M . C. Talavande in the Venezuelan department of the Paris exhibition, both with very laro-e holes, having probably been used by the natives for holding water. I took their dimensions, which are as follows:-No. 1, great circumference 33§ iuches, small circumference 29-f inches; this egg was |
