| OCR Text |
Show .o i ll 1 j ne - jsSSssit I -Ts-v: W'r i' iil ' ',c ,r u;ifi m)' furfcnn i-: hopes that I Willi II '! roc ncJC' morning woifcd carry me ls A,' vul I with her out of this desert island. After 0TV sua.. I n i l l having passed the night in this BjIjYBBbKbbVB BfP l I fvNNXv s 'AWWm'HI ill 11 condition (he bit d flew aiv-ay as MBKtL HjP I II 1 1 soon as it was daylight and carried Jf I 4I V ' I f 'I I 77?'' jfcs . Qwfe Likely; for Science Has , ) I raP- r Found the Bones of a Huge I I I Bird That MigHt EaStly. HaVe M II I r Taken the Arabian Niahts I which was as big a? the trunk of a in-t in-t ..ngly to v it h B 1 I , ln hope- thai the roc next moral gaft x" Nr i( r' '! ort i-lati I. s 1 m voVftadstta? ' y niRht T ? I ATjfitfn condition, tho bird flew away as soon as it B A, i wliHw and carricti ,if3 iirm tb i k'jf j 1 4M&V ""''I di-corn the omh. h. I ,&) descended With bo much rapidity tl B 4r 1 ,ost TTiy on8e3- But when 1 found .i wffiA m'' on ,l10 around, I speedily mtled the B ju'.V'' not :'ri1 hnd scarcely done so when ,; B v9f un Berpenl of trr-;i r length in her bill, flew B auay." ft?' But if Sinbud had es- f from his B Island he was in an ven B w o r 1 predicamcn' I B cause bo found that the roi ha 1 deposited him in B ' 1; '. pdis of a walled val- H skGGSk t ' whose precipitous a&i sldi ached up Into 1 ho ky. Sinbad was inter-Mtl inter-Mtl d to lind that i he floor ,.- j of the Talley wai carp ted KbMi with diamonds and endh - 1 bushels of enormous prc- V . 4 l,' tious atones of priceless ft turbad with as many Jow-Bft Jow-Bft ! as be COUld carry BA B ry7," 3 im; B B B down from the BnI of the creature. j. vHh Did Ktnbad tho Sailor I CT really yee a roc? I Hfl The legends of prehls-, prehls-, turlc 1 inn k and iho talea 0 ' Ni? of mythology are always 1 uV upon B I v BOr ot creature, B I I I tlien, was It that flew B 3 m f Pwoufh ti p skies and B In: plred this tale of Sin- B . CM-like Preh istoric Bird, Whose bad "' 1 ' ,,,aC ' jpjWa.s Fo ind Recently in Kecent Fclnntlflr dlscov- Btorrd with a Man. erleB lu rloua part .... if( nn- fill 1 IUUKC II quill' plain that birds did fly in times gone by hlch wero big enough to Uft a man into ill- fkl-j without dlfficnlty. I' Is a well known fact that in thee modern times an eagle with a flvefoot spread of wings can lift a ten-pound lamb or fowl. It is a pretty well recognized rule that a bird can lift one-half more thau its weight. Many of the huge birds of ancient times had a bulk of many hundred? hun-dred? of pounds, and some of them hud a spread of wings which would cover a trolley car. Tho oldest and blggent of the? flyln rrratures, of coarse, date back to a period V I ;i Igfcl no- -o ea- e air nowaday The air in thoe da- M? a f' deal denser, hear'er rban to-Ti to-Ti ls la borne out by tli luxuriant Boi 1 1' of the carboniferous ase. when B- cra-ures flourished The dense at msphere ot that period made flight much Still another and rather fanciful thing I that has been suggested la that the moon lln olden time formed a ring around the L Ui tike Saturn's rings aud that the of gravitation downward (o the ear centre was ljs Jl enr, bj the put l J upward of the ring. ThK ' irtO al-o make flight TBf pre- JmQ9HBUI iKB .... ' ' Thc Stretch of Wings of the Ancient American Ptcrano- don as Compared With a Trolley Car. and varieties of birdl that could not fl at all. Thus, science knows tba' there once lived in our own Itocky .Mountains a giant parrot, with a massive beak and a raucous voice which might have resounded like a megaphone for miles abou through the ancient marshes of prehistoric America. W hether the huge parrot of our Western Stales fed on fresh water mussels, using its massive beak to crush the shells, or, like ordinary modern parrot. . subsisted on fruit?, nobody knows Suffice it to say that the bird stood seven feet tall and that Its huge head wai two and a half feet long. Of this much there i. no question, for the Museum of Natural History in Now York has one nearly comple'e r.kele'on. and fracments of QtherBj Including skulls, have been dug up. Perhaps tbreo million years have elapsed lince this mighty American fowl trod the earth. But tho species does not seem to have been by any means restricted to tho RdCky Mountain region. it doubtless rangt-d ovr most of the area now comprised com-prised within the limits of the United Slates; for although its parrot-like chtr-acter chtr-acter has been made known only by recent re-cent discovery of skulls, etc. fragments of a foot im found by Prof K D. Cope In northern Now Mexico as long ago aa 1875. and a single toe-bone turned up later on In New Jerxey. These foot-bones have been regarded as of fascinating interest, in-terest, and sci nee for many years has looked forward hopefully to the pot.sibillty of coming across a -kelPton of the most remarkable feathered creature that ever was hatched from an egg on the North American continent. The dream cam true when, a short time ago. William Stein, a fosHil-hnntei- in the snip! Oy of tho Museum of Nalural History, His-tory, while searching a previously unexplored unex-plored flection of the Big -torn Basin, in northwest Wyoming, came upon a nearly complete skeleton of the colossal parrot embedded In t-oft bluish shale. It Ifl ?uppod that the locality wa anciently a mar-h. muddy and flooded with water This particular specimen, wading about in pur.Milt of mollusks for food, may bare got stuck in the mud. and so died. Eventually ihe mud hardened Into shale rock, preserving Us bones. Parts of both o-boncs Ml found exposed at the ur- ' face. 1 This giant arrot the scleotUt prefer I to call It parrot-like was massively 1 built, with leg-bones as large in diameter I as the thigh-bones of a man. and feet ot Ji formidable sire and ttrength. Undoubu edly the latter were equipped with pow 1 erful 1 laws, which it may have used for t digging mussel- out of the mud 1 It possessed, however, no wing that 1 were of any accounf for flying. Indeed. it could not fly at all. and its wings were so small as to be of little help in tunning tun-ning 1 But presumably It had few enemies to I tear, so dangerously was it armed with C beak and claw A bird bigger than a r man. and stronger for, to match Its skele- I tal structure, lu muscular development r must have been phenomenal -might well. . with such an equipment, put up a tre- c mecdous fight. , Although o mighty, the giant tarroi t to 1st:, iitnuuut ruim artx. im. was neither so big nor so formidable as another great bird whose Remains have recently been dug up In Pa lagonla. The latter was a cursorial (running) bird of prey, a monster of the heron family. In fact. It was by far the biggest br'rd of prey that ever lived, and probably , attacked with success large-sized animals. This remarkable fowl had a head ' bigger than that of a horso, with a bugJl beak as sharp as an ice pick. It stood 11oight feet high on its t-harp-clawed fe t. Its neck was as thick as a horde's nock, and Its limbs very mns.le. Like the Ki ant parrot, it bad wiujrs too small to be of any use for flight. Accounts of such rifal and undenla le birds as these brim; t mind the fabled i 'roc., of Arabian Nights already referred to. There seems to be little doubt that tho stories told of the roc bad a certain ha U In fact Arab traders, voyaging down tho , east coast of Africa. h;I frequent dealings 1 with the people of Madagascar, and it would be strange, indeed. If they did not learn from them about f.he enormous hud " native to that island, known to mod rn science as the aepyornls. It is believed that this bird became ex-tlnct ex-tlnct not much more thnn a centum ac '-Captain '-Captain Cook, who siopj.d at Mad lia or on his famous voyage a ound thf T ld, might have seen ft alive If be had pone hunting. Pin the fir 1 knowledg. f " ever gained by Kuropeans came fmrj 'h Island of Mauritius, whlcfc fa a,, it 00 mlleB east of Madagascar. Malagasv-y native were in the ' nnblt of coming all the way from Mada- nscnr to Mauritius to buy mm. and the Je' eptacles they used for taking back wlf them the ardent spirits were (at b-.tat, m some Instances) In-stances) the empty (kk- of asipanti. f.,wl which, they said, had once jr-.-n a numer ous specie in their own cc mntry. The egrca held approxljuiately two gallons. gal-lons. They wer ftaklnT.,nr average) hlr-teer hlr-teer inches long, nearly three feet In circumference cir-cumference and with sh-Mb almost an Incit thick. As containers ; they served exceU leniiy on.- ..f th.-n was ccual. in extents, ex-tents, to Ml hens' grs. I'p to the pre4 nt time no skeleton of the bird has been found, nor enough in the ay of osseous fragments to make possible possi-ble a satifaetoiJy "restoration"' of it. Oneo In a while an eg (worth a small fortunn because of .9 rarity) In dug out of a travel banker some such place, wherein t has bee i preaerved by Ita thick shell. " a g, no don1..: Probably the roc. or aepyaornls. huge hough It' I "'. was not the largeat bird kj d Such n-malni of It as iavo bei found Indicate that It tood not note tbar 1 f1 high. The "giant moa" f New '. land as fourteen feet tall and weighed - least half a ton. The ro c seems to hae been related to he otrl.h ,rlfec The mot might almoat e deter'1 Rigantlc edition or the light les"PtM"vx-" which atlil lingers on he verge , ' extinction in New Zealand, t was harr,e" 10 ,he point of helplet-belni helplet-belni I without power of flight tn-apable tn-apable oV ruunlng fast, and slow ami lumay in.41' ,t movements. Besides, it ra extren?'1 tQPld. In no other couc o-ld it hr survived at all. owing to Hero Out of I the e di-advantage i,in. n id , uo carnivorous mammals, and it is likely tRst Jiil that the islands were not inhabited by V' Sh L rffflH man until a period comparatively recent In WKm the history of the world. Thus it came a.'s about that the moa waxed great and r' iiiB . The moa was remarkable for its enor u H mous legs and feet, which were so heavv I thai it could nut possibly move about very f A j H fast. The Maoris, when they hod come to B New Zealand, proceeded to hunt the blrW B with spears for food, and. owing to ita CuA?' iiiH helplessness, its extermination was a . p,. jl question of only a short time. ' - 1 Science s inclined to listen to old Sin- . "jL ' ' ' Moa. ' ISh fldsBBBBBBBsl New S&i BsV SBBBBB |
