Æpyornis Island Æpyornis Island "Æpyornis Island", or "Aepyornis Island", is a short story by H. G. Wells, first published in 1894 in the "Pall Mall Budget". It was included in "The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents", the first collection of short stories by Wells, first published in 1895. In the story, a man looking for eggs of "Aepyornis", an extinct flightless bird, passes two years alone on a small island with an "Aepyornis" that has hatched. "Aepyornis maximus" (the Giant elephant-bird) was a giant flightless bird that lived in Madagascar; it became extinct probably because it was hunted excessively by humans. The
Bird Island, South Georgia wandering albatross were ringed, which gave startling data about their range - one bird was found in Australia . The island is currently a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and so there are no landings allowed without permission. The summit of the island, Roché Peak is named after the Englishman Anthony de la Roché who discovered South Georgia in 1675. 2008 marked the 50th anniversary of biological research on Bird Island. The island has been a station for Antarctic research since 1963, and is currently a biological research station of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) at Jordan Cove, with three