Wade Short, age 12, of Buffalo, N.Y., for his question:

WHAT RIND OF BIRD IS THE ROC?

The roc is a fabulous bird of enormous size and strength. But the bird exists only in myths.

Stories in the "Arabian Nights" told of the roc. It was a huge bird that resembled an eagle but was large enough to seize an elephant in its talons. In the "Arabian Nights," Sinbad the Sialor tells of seeing the roc's giganic eggs.

The roc was said to live on the island of Madagascar. Marco Polo relayed stories that he had heard reporting that the gigantic bird appeared from the south.

Stories of the roc probably came from people who remember hearing stories of the elephant bird, an extinct species of a big bird that could not fly. The elephant bird stood 10 feet high and weighed about 1,000 pounds and lived in Madagascar. The eggs of the bird, that could hold two gallons, were the largest known single cells in the animal kingdom.