Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 1.pdf/368

Rh finish up the business that way, or fall back on the green things&hellip;

"I sold the bones to a man named Winslow—a dealer near the British Museum, and he says he sold them to old Havers. It seems Havers didn’t understand they were extra large, and it was only after his death they attracted attention. They called ’em Æpyornis—what was it?"

"Æpyornis vastus," said I. "It’s funny, the very thing was mentioned to me by a friend of mine. When they found an Æpyornis with a thigh a yard long, they thought they had reached the top of the scale, and called him Æpyornis maximus. Then some one turned up another thigh-bone four feet six or more, and that they called Æpyornis titan. Then your vastus was found after old Havers died, in his collection, and then a vastissimus turned up."

"Winslow was telling me as much," said the man with the scar. "If they get any more Æpyornises, he reckons some scientific swell will go and burst a blood-vessel. But it was a queer thing to happen to a man, wasn't it—altogether?" 336