Editing Roc (mythology) (section)

==Rationalized accounts==
The scientific culture of the 19th century introduced some "scientific" rationalizations for the myth's origins, by suggesting that the origin of the [[Mythology|myth]] of the roc might lie in embellishments of the often-witnessed power of the eagle that could carry away a newborn lamb. In 1863, [[Giovanni Giuseppe Bianconi|Bianconi]] suggested the roc was a [[Bird of prey|raptor]] (Hawkins and Goodman, 2003: 1031). Recently a giant [[subfossil]] eagle, the [[Malagasy crowned eagle]], identified from [[Madagascar]] was actually implicated as a top bird [[predator]] of the island, whose [[megafauna]] once included [[giant lemur]]s and [[Malagasy hippopotamus|pygmy hippopotamuses]].<ref>Goodman, 1994</ref>
[[File:Aepyornis eggs.jpg|thumb|left|''Aepyornis'' eggs, [[Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle]], Paris]]

Another possible origin of the myth is accounts of eggs of another extinct Malagasy bird, the enormous ''[[Aepyornis]]'' [[elephant bird]], hunted to extinction by the 16th century, that was three meters tall and [[flightless bird|flightless]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Eighth Continent | url=https://archive.org/details/eighthcontinent00pete | url-access=registration | author=Tyson, Peter | year=2000 | location=New York | pages=[https://archive.org/details/eighthcontinent00pete/page/138 138–139]| isbn=9780380975778 }}</ref> There were reported elephant bird sightings at least in folklore memory as [[Étienne de Flacourt]] wrote in 1658.{{r|ley196608}} Its egg, live or [[subfossil]]ised, was known as early as 1420, when sailors to the Cape of Good Hope found eggs of the roc, according to a caption in the 1456 [[Fra Mauro map]] of the world, which says that the roc "carries away an elephant or any other great animal".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Science and Civilisation in China|last=Needham|first=Joseph|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1971|isbn=9780521070607|pages=501}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal Surnamed the Navigator, and Its Results, Comprising the Discovery, Within One Century, of Half the World ... from Authentic Contemporary Documents|last=Major|first=Richard Henry|publisher=Biblioteca Nacional de Austria – Asher (Editor)|year=1868|pages=311}}</ref> Between 1830 and 1840 European travelers in Madagascar saw giant eggs and egg shells. English observers were more willing to believe their accounts because they knew of the [[moa]] in New Zealand. In 1851 the [[French Academy of Sciences]] received three eggs. They and later fossils seemingly confirmed to 19th-century Europeans that ''Aepyornis'' was the roc, but the real bird does not resemble an eagle as the roc is said to.{{r|ley196608}}
[[File:Print, Ferdinandes Magalanes Lusitanus, plate 4 from "Americae Retectio", 1580s (CH 18382163).jpg|thumb|290px|''Elephant Carried Away by a Roc'' after design by [[Stradanus]], 1590]]

In addition to Polo's account of the ''rukh'' in 1298, Chou Ch'ű-fei (周去非, Zhōu Qùfēi), in his 1178 book ''[[Lingwai Daida]]'', told of a large island off Africa with birds large enough to use their quills as water reservoirs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=In Search of the Red Slave|last=Pearson & Godden|year=2002|isbn=0750929383|pages=121|publisher=Sutton }}</ref> Fronds of the [[raffia palm]] may have been brought to [[Kublai Khan]] under the guise of roc's feathers.<ref>[[Sir Henry Yule|Yule]]'s ''[[Marco Polo]]'', bk. iii. ch. 33, and ''Academy'', 1884, No. 620.</ref><ref>Attenborough, D. (1961). ''Zoo Quest to Madagascar''. Lutterworth Press, London. p.32-33.</ref>