332 GEOGRAPHICAL ASTD GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



number of distinct types has been obtained, upwards of fifty spe- 

 cies have been described, the greater number of which are referable 

 to the modern genera Aquila (eagle), Haliaetus (fishing-eagle), 

 Milvus (kite), Bubo (owl), Picus (woodpecker), Corvus (crow), 

 Motacilla (wagtail), Passer (sparrow), Columba (pigeon), Rallus 

 (rail), Phoenicopterus (flamingo), Grus (crane), Ardea (heron), Ibis, 

 Totanus (tattler), Numenius (curlew), Tringa (sandpiper), Larus 

 (gull), Phalacrocorax (cormorant), Sula (gannet), Pelecanus, and 

 Anas (duck). The occurrence of a parrot (Psittacus) and of sev- 

 eral species of pheasant (Phasianus; also in Greece) is rather re- 

 markable, since the former is no longer an inhabitant of the 

 European continent, or of any adjoining tract, and the latter is 

 generally conceived to have been a modern introduction from 

 Asia. Several of the generic types found in France have also been 

 recognised in the deposits of South Germany (Steinheim, &c.). 

 The Siwalik Hills formation of India has yielded the remains of 

 two species of pelican, a cormorant, stork (Leptoptilus), merganser, 

 ostrich (Struthio Asiaticus) and emu (DromaBus? Sivalensis). With 

 reference to the occurrence in India of the last named bird, whose 

 relationship with its living Australian congener, Dromseus ISTovae- 

 HollandiaB, is very intimate, Mr. Lydekker says : ' ' The former 

 occurrence in India of a large struthioid closely allied to the emu 

 is one more instance of the originally wide distribution of the 

 struthioid birds ; and it not improbably indicates that the home of 

 the group of which the cassowaries, emus, and inoas are diverging 

 branches, was originally somewhere in the neighbourhood of the 

 Indian region, whence a migration took place during some part 

 of the Tertiary period towards the southeast, where the group, in 

 regions more or less completely free from the larger mammals, sub- 

 sequently attained its greatest development." 122 The American 

 Miocene birds are limited to some four or five species, a turkey 

 (Meleagris antiquus ; Colorado), nearly as large as the common 

 wild species (M. gallopavo), gannet, shearwater, and guillemot. 



The Pliocene and Post-Pliocene birds of the continent of Europe 

 are much less numerous than the Miocene, and in the greater num- 

 ber of cases do not admit of absolute determination. Several 

 species of waders, swimmers, and gallinaceous birds (Gallus, Scolo- 

 pax, Anas, Anser), more or less intimately related to existing forms, 

 have been described from England, France, and Germany. The 



