The Fatu-liva is a fictional species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

invented by

George S. Chappell George Shepard Chappell, AIA (January 2, 1877 – November 25, 1946) was an American architect, parodist, journalist (with the magazine '' Vanity Fair'') and author. He is known as the author of numerous books, including a travel series parody p ...

in his travel parody ''The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas, by Walter E. Traprock'' (1921). Fatu-liva were said to be found only in the fictional "Filbert Islands" in the

South Pacific Ocean South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

where they laid cube-like, black-spotted

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

that were very similar in appearance to dice. The bird's nest was described in the book as:

"...a semi-spheric bowl of closely woven grass in which lay four snow-white, polka-dotted cubes, the marvelous square eggs of the ''fatu-liva''."Chappell (1921)

Additionally, a black-and-white photograph of what was supposedly the bird's dice-like eggs was provided. Its caption read:

"This is without question the most extraordinary picture which has ever been taken of any natural history subject. It corroborates in most convincing manner the author's claim to the discovery of the wonderful ''fatu-liva'' bird with its unique gift of laying square eggs. Here we see the eggs themselves in all the beauty of their cubical form and quaint marking; here we see the nest itself, made of delicately woven ''haro'' and brought carefully from the tree's summit by its discoverer, Babai-Alova-Babai. An extremely interesting feature of the picture is the presence in the nest of ''lapa'' or signal-feather. By close observation, Mr. Whinney, the scientist of the expedition, discovered that whenever the mother-bird left the nest in search of food she always decorated her home with one of her wing feathers which served as a signal to her mate that she would return shortly, which she invariably did. Skeptics have said that it would be impossible to lay a square egg. To which the author is justly entitled to say: 'The camera never lies.'"

The name "Fatu-liva" probably derives from the real island of

Fatu Hiva Fatu-Hiva (the "H" is not pronounced, see name section below) is the southernmost island of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. With Motu Nao as its closest neighbor, it is also the m ...

, sometimes spelled Fatu Iva. The name Fatu Hiva means "strange rock" in the

Marquesan language Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. They are usually classified into two groups, North Marquesan and South Marquesan, roughly along geograph ...

. "Fatu-liva" is a theoretically possible transcription of terms like ''fatu riva'' ("encircled rock") in some

Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austro ...

.Tregear (1891)

Footnotes

References

* (1921):
The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas, by Walter E. Traprock
'. * {{aut, Tregear, Edward (1891):

'. Lyon and Blair, Wellington. Fictional birds Humorous hoaxes in science 1920s hoaxes

See also

Footnotes

References