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Rare egg to be sold

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 24. Sotheby’s, the London auctioneers, will demonstrate their professional versatility on March 4 by suctioning an egg large enough to make 72 omelettes.

The egg, however, is in no state to serve as an ingredient for any dish. It was laid about a million years ago on the island o( Madagascar, and is in a semi-fossilised state.

When fresh, it weighed about 201 b, and it measures 15 inches long and 28 inches in girth.

The bird responsible was a gigantic ostrich-like creature named aepyomis maximus. The heaviest of all known birds, it stood nine or 10ft tall, and weighed about half a ton.

It survived from about a million years ago until men came to Madagascar and gave rise to the legend ot the rock bird described by Sinbad, the sailor, in “Arabian Nights."

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19710225.2.61

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 8

Word Count
146

Rare egg to be sold Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 8

Rare egg to be sold Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 8