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HIPPO EATS DWARF:
A Field Guide to Hoaxes
and Other B.S.

The Oo-er bird, which makes its home in Australia, has one remarkable quality. It lays square eggs. Its name comes from the sound it makes every time it lays one: "oo-er!"

Although few details are known about the Oo-er, we know more about the Fatu-Liva, a square-egg-laying bird found on the South Pacific Filbert Islands (discovered by the American explorer Walter E. Traprock during the early twentieth century). The Fatu-Liva's eggs, besides being square, are snow-white and polka-dotted. If threatened, Fatu-Livas are capable of laying these eggs while aloft. The eggs then drop with great force, inflicting serious damage on anything unfortunate enough to be down below. While exploring the Filberts, Traprock succeeded in taking a picture of a Fatu-Liva nest in the wild, containing a collection of the bird's eggs (see thumbnail).

It is highly probable that the Oo-er and Fatu-Liva are related species. In fact, the two may be the same species. Most likely Oo-ers, at some point in the distant past, migrated to the Filbert Islands. Further study is required to confirm this hypothesis.

It should be noted, however, that upon Traprock's return to America, many skeptics publicly doubted the reality of the square-egg-laying Fatu-Liva. (They even claimed that Traprock was the pseudonym of George Shepard Chappell, a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, and that the Filbert Islands didn't exist either!) In response to these accusations, Traprock commented that, "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.'"


Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

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Hahaha... Dice! Though the birds may be real enough, they don't lay square eggs.
Posted by Meerkat  on  Thu Aug 17, 2006  at  08:08 AM

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This reminds me of a animal I know.The gillygaloo Lays square eggs and comes from america.
Posted by J  in  Im not telling you you stupid computer!  on  Tue Oct 17, 2006  at  09:44 AM

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The gillygaloo lays its eggs on hills and the square shape evolved so eggs could not roll away from the nest.The gillygaloo eggs look like the ones in the photo.The resemblance to dice is part of the legend.Lumberjacks highly valued the bird because of its eggs, which were hard-boiled and used asdice.This could explain the reason Fatu-liva eggs look like dice, although I cant understand why the pattern would exactly mimc dice,though.
Posted by J  on  Wed Oct 25, 2006  at  10:52 AM

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Square eggs in bird's nest
Laid by Oo-er who uses
them as strange weapons
Posted by J  on  Sat Nov 25, 2006  at  12:04 AM

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Strange Oo-er bird eggs
They're cubic in appearance
Might those eggs be dice?
Posted by A. Layzeegurl  in  Somewhereville  on  Sat Feb 09, 2008  at  01:51 PM

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Yes, the camera never lies and it tells me those are dice. Even the marks are perfectly positioned. It's also impossible to have square eggs, since squares only have areas, not volume.

I still would like to see eggs that are different from round or oval in shape. Would it not be difficult (much more traumatic) for the hen to lay an egg that is not roundish, much more cubic?
Posted by Chuck Agustin  on  Thu Apr 17, 2008  at  05:44 PM

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