Roc

a fabulous bird of such size that it carried off elephants to feed its young. The legend of the roc is oriental. It has been made familiar through the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. The popular notion may have originated in the great expanse of wing of the alpine eagle or lammergeier. An account in the Arabian Nights' tells of a passage at arms between a rhinoceros and an elephant, in which the rhinoceros is credited with having killed the elephant by plunging its horn into its opponent's side; but fell itself, blinded by the blood and crushed beneath the weight of its bulky opponent. In this condition, a roc with wings like a windmill came and carried them both off its nest. The recent discovery of a bird's skeleton not less than twelve feet in height lends just a shade of possibility to what has been considered a mere flight of oriental imagination. See Dinornis; Ostrich