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, Minnesota Bird Island, Minnesota Bird Island is a city on U.S. Route 212 in Renville County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,042 at the 2010 census. Bird Island was platted in 1878, and named for a nearby bird sanctuary in a marsh. After the installation of ditches and tile, the area was converted to farmland, erasing the town's namesake. A post office has been in operation at Bird Island since 1878. Bird Island was incorporated in 1881. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. As of the census