Giant Bird in New Guinea
From: http://www.strangeark.com/reprints/ngbird.html
From Nature, (Nov. 25, 1875), V. 13, p. 76.
An interesting letter appears in yesterday's Daily News from Mr.
Smithurst, the engineer of the steamer which made the voyage up
the newly discovered Baxter River in New Guinea, referred to in
Sir Henry Rawlinson's address at the Geographical Society last week.
The river seems to be a magnificent one, and could evidently be
made navigatable to a considerable distance inland. The exploring
party found the banks to consist mainly of mangrove swamps, though,
near the end of the journey, high clay banks with Eucalyptus globulus
were found. Scarcely any natives were seen, though there were frequent
signs of their being about. Mr. Smithurst refers to a very remarkable
bird, which, so far as we know, has not hitherto been described.
The natives state that it can fly away with a dugong, a kangaroo,
or a large turtle. Mr. Smithurst states he saw and shot at a specimen
of this wonderful animal, and that "the noise caused by the
flapping of its wings resembled the sound of a locomotive pulling
a long train very slowly." He states that "it appeared
to be about sixteen or eighteen feet across the wings as it flew,
the body dark brown, the breast white, neck long, and beak long
and straight." In the stiff clay of the river bank Mr. Smithurst
states that he saw the footprints of some large animal, which he
"took to be a buffalo or wild ox," but he saw no traces
of the animal. These statements are very wonderful, and before giving
credence to them we had better await the publication of the official
account of the voyage. A very fair collection of rocks, stones,
birds, insects, plants, moss, and orchids has been made, which will
be submitted to a naturalist for his opinion. The dates of Mr. Smithurst's
communication are from August 30 to Sept. 7.
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