The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-09-04

Iwenty-seven Pounds, said 10 Nave
Been Found by the Natives-Pro-
lessor Tzrause WIN Try to secure
the BIRD Alive.
For a single bird 100000!
That giant roe which terrorized Sind
bad the Sailor and all his men was M
myth, says the New York World. The
Arabian Nights tells the truth when
It speaks OF that monster Of the skies
which would carry of man in its
great claws. schezerade was telling
no fairy tale.
Professor Krause, foremost among
the savants Of the University Of Ber-
lin, IS even now IN Madagascar seek.
Ing the great bird which boy readers
know as the roc and which scientists
call the apyornis. Arabian romance
had shorter name-the roc. The
saYant has been commissioned to en-
gage whatever men and transport he
needs and to spend 100000 marks it DE
can, bring back just one Of those giant
birds, long since believed to be extinct.
Have started on the hunt" is the
last cable message which the senate
Of the university has received Now,
II is all that those grave and spec
tacled German scientists can do to
wait for the great day when the in
trepid Krause shall return to civiliza-
tlon with perhaps another message:
Il have the roc itselft
But how does Professor Krause
know that there is d live roc til the
heart Of Madagascar? That question
Is most easy to answer because a fresh
egg has been found. 1t was floating
down the quiet stream toward the
southeast coast. borne upon the bosom
Of the current that had brought it from
The wild and almost unexplored ill.,
terror Of the great island OF the east
African coast
Natives found it. With loud cries of
10y they bore it to little party of
white men who happened to be near
By. One CHANGED to be naturalist.
For a moment he was dumfounded;
then he spoke "The egg Of the apy-
prnis," he said, '.the roc of Arabian
fable. The egg IS fresh 1t would
have turned within week The bird
that laid this egg Is still aliyew The
great egg was twelve inches in diam
ater and twenty inches long Ii
weighed twenty seven pounds. Think
of chick Of such tremendous weight!
The white men were Germans. They
eabled at once to Berlin, and back the
aext day came the order for Professor
Krause to take command and TO work
his way up the river at any price to
end the live bird that laid the egg
That the egg was still fresh proved
hat the bird could not be far away.
The expedition is equipped with ey-
arything that science can suggest. It's
orders are to bring the great bird back
alive and to study its native haunts,
It's life and its present condition. If
The expedition is successful, it viii be
one Of the notable achievements for
aatural history of the present century.
For a long period the marshes Of
Madagascar have yielded the fossil
eggs of these enormous extinct birds,
the roes Of days long since bygone
The natives have known Of them for
many, many years and have been ac-
eustomed to hunt them for naturaIists
by probing the bottoms Of the swamps
with long iron rods. All the better
museums Of the world have one or
more Of the giant fossil eggs
For the monster birds the name Of
npyornis was proposed when the
Rrst fossil eggs were found Gradually
It became accepted as the scientific
name of the giant bird that had laid
those great eggs. In the course of
time naturallsts were rewarded by the
discovery of fossil bones Of the bird
Some Of these disinterred within re-
sent years indicate that they belonged
10 birds bigger than any others known
TO students of natural history. The
bones Of the toes seemed almost as
large as those of mastodons. Some of
HE birds had four toes; others had
three. The toes can be told By the ex-
perts because Of the absence Of the
bony bridge at the lower end Of the
shin bones, which are as thick and as
long as those Of the average elephant
If today.
Many of the fossil eggs are far larger
than the fresh one Just discovered.
Some Of them have d circumference Of
thirty inches and a longer girth Of
thirty-six inches The birds they have
hatched in prehistoric times have been
like the ordinary ostrich, vet possessed
Of wings which gave them tremendous
powers Of flight They We're endowed
with strength sufficient to give battle
to lions and tigers.
Should one Of these great feathered
creatures be brought back to the coast