"About The Year Of Our Lord 1420 A
Ship Or Junk Of India In Crossing The Indian Sea Was Driven
By way of the
Islands of Men and Women beyond the Cape of Diab, and carried between the
Green Islands
And the Darkness in a westerly and south-westerly direction
for 40 days, without seeing anything but sky and sea, during which time
they made to the best of their judgment 2000 miles. The gale then ceasing
they turned back, and were seventy days in getting to the aforesaid Cape
Diab. The ship having touched on the coast to supply its wants, the
mariners beheld there the egg of a certain bird called Chrocho, which
egg was as big as a butt.[3] And the bigness of the bird is such that
between the extremities of the wings is said to be 60 paces. They say too
that it carries away an elephant or any other great animal with the
greatest ease, and does great injury to the inhabitants of the country,
and is most rapid in its flight."
G.-St. Hilaire considered the Aepyornis to be of the Ostrich family;
Prince C. Buonaparte classed it with the Inepti or Dodos; Duvernay of
Valenciennes with aquatic birds! There was clearly therefore room for
difference of opinion, and Professor Bianconi of Bologna, who has written
much on the subject, concludes that it was most probably a bird of the
vulture family. This would go far, he urges, to justify Polo's account of
the Ruc as a bird of prey, though the story of it's lifting any large
animal could have had no foundation, as the feet of the vulture kind are
unfit for such efforts.
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