Elephant bird determined that "Vorombe titan" reached weights of and stood tall, making it the world's largest bird, slightly larger than the much older "Dromornis stirtoni". Elephant birds have been extinct since at least the 17th century. Étienne de Flacourt, a French governor of Madagascar in the 1640s and 1650s, mentions an ostrich-like bird said to inhabit unpopulated regions, though it is unclear whether he was repeating folk tales passed on from generations earlier. In 1659, Flacourt wrote of the "vouropatra – a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places
François Lays Lays turned to Luigi Cherubini. Lays had repeatedly supported Cherubini when Napoleon had shown signs of dislike for the composer. Cherubini had now become one of the leading figures in the musical establishment under the Restoration. He immediately intervened on Lays's behalf, but all he could obtain from Ferté was the advice that the singer should go on a tour of the provinces as a way of supplementing his income.Having obtained leave of absence, Lays appeared in Nancy (where performances were interrupted by the death of the leading soprano) and Strasbourg, where Lays himself was obliged to interrupt them with