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Show 1867.] MR. G. DAWSON ROWLEY ON JEPYORNIS. 893 cracked, but with the granulation and the surface perfect. No. 2 measured 33| and 28| inches respectively ; the surface was not so well preserved. I regret that I can give no history of these. I offered to purchase them, and am now informed that I may have both for the small sum of .-£320, or one for ^6200! The ' Journal de Toulouse' states that M . Nau, who had been thirteen years a prisoner among the Hovas, has brought to Toulouse a specimen with diameters 12 inches and 10 inches, found in a recent alluvial deposit at a depth of 4| feet. This one I have not seen. I believe it to be different from one mentioned to me in a letter by Count Raoul de Barace, at Nantes. M. Grandidier speaks of one or two other eggs in a letter I have just received from him, making ten or twelve in all. I am bound also to state that he doubts any having been found except at Cape St. Marie, the village of Ampalaze and Machichora, all in close proximity on the shore of South Madagascar. To his opinion I attach the greatest weight. It is therefore quite possible that the statement I received in French, naming Mananzari as one locality, may be founded upon an error. M. Grandidier's letter goes on to say, "All the southern tract, where these ports are, is only a plateau without the smallest hill, without a ravine, without a cave, where one digs in a bed of sand as smooth as the surface of the table." The eggs have been found " in the places I mention, only on the sea-shore, on the abrupt rise of the dunes, even on the surface of the sand, when there is a crumbling of the earth, or when tropical rains heave up parts of the sand." He has deposited in the museum the following specimens of the strata:-"No. 1. U n cal-caire quaternaire, which does not rise above the sea-level, and serves as a base to the dunes. To this calcareous stratum are joined specimens of modern breccia. No. 2. Sand of the dunes, composed of impalpable fragments, shells, and grains of quartz. No. 3. Land-shells, which are found along with the remains of the eggs of AHpy-ornis. No. 4. Fragments of calcareous rolled stones mixed with shells. All the subfossil shells that are mixed up with the remains of eggs would probably be still found alive, and are land-shells. For fossils I have tried without hope of success, and I do not think any further efforts can be made." In m y first paper I located the AZpyornis in modern times; and each new discovery confirms the idea. There is every reason to believe, from M . Grandidier's account, that it was extant in or about Flacourt's period, i. e. 1658. All the eggs found have been taken from recent strata, modern alluvia- whole ones deeper, and fragments on the surface, the latter in great abundance, showing that these AEpyornithes were by no means uncommon. M. Grandidier says that the recent stratum in which he found his remains contained also land-shells, which partially retain their colour and still exist in Madagascar. M. Grandidier concludes his most interesting paper thus : - " I am led to acknowledge that this gigantic bird was living at a recent period, since its remains are found in the most modern formations, the deposition of which is still in progress. Possibly it existed at the beginning of our era; but when the country was peopled it became speedily exter- |