Note 212 — Chapter XVII · THE FRENCH IN MADAGASCAR

Almost certainly this was an egg of the gigantic Æpyornis. The Æpyornis, a ratite bird as large as, or larger than, an ostrich and distantly allied to both ostriches and cassowaries, lived on in Madagascar to the human period—say two thousand years ago or even later. It was quite possibly seen alive by the earliest Arab visitors to the island.