an ostrich-like bird. This has generally been taken as a reference to elephant birds, although it has been argued that he may have been repeating folk tales from generations earlier. In his 1658 work, Histoire de la grande isle Madagascar, Flacourt wrote of the bird (in translation):

There has been speculation, especially popular in the latter half of the 19th century, that the legendary roc from the accounts of Marco Polo was ultimately based on elephant