1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 507 



FOSSIL BONES OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS FROM GROTTO PIETRO 

 TAMPONI AND GRIVE-ST. ALBAN. 



BY R. W. 8HUFELDT, M. D. 



For some time past the writer has had in his possession a small 

 collection of fossil bones that were kindly submitted to him by Mr. 

 Jno. Eyerman, of Easton, Pennsylvania, to whose cabinet they be- 

 long. 



These fossil bones are from birds and mammals, and were ob- 

 tained from two very different localities, the smaller lot of the two 

 having been collected at the Grotto Pietro Tamponi, and the re- 

 mainder of them at Grive-St. Alhan, in France. In his letter of 

 transmittal, Mr. Eyerman invites my attention to the fact that the 

 celebrated locality, Grive-St. Alban, *'is situated in the department 

 of Isere, France, the deposits belonging to the upper division of the 

 Middle Miocene. European geologists have arranged the Middle 

 Miocene into two divisions, of which the upper is distributed princi- 

 pally in isolated patches throughout France, although these deposits 

 are also found in Germany and in the Vienna Basin." 



" Grive-St. Alban is justly famous for the large number and great 

 variety of mammalian remains found in its beds, of which we have 

 Listriodon, Hyotherium, Palaeomeryx, Micromeryx, Dicroceros of the 

 Artiodactyla, as well as the earliest antelope, Profra^oceros. Of the 

 Perissodactyla there are the hornless rhinoceros, Aceratherium, 

 Chalicotherium. Of the Proboscidea there is the Mastodon augusti- 

 dens. The Rodentia is represented by Lagomys, Myoxus, Sciurus, 

 Chalicomys and the large Dormouse, Cricetodon. The Carnivora 

 by Viverra, Lxdra, D'lnocyon; the sabre-tooth tiger, Machaerodus ; 

 the mongoose, Berpestes, and the disputed genus Haplogale of 

 Sclosser. The Insectivores by Plesiosorex, Erinaceus and Talpa, 

 and, finally, the fossil Gibbon, Hylobates." 



In the second locality, or that of Tavolara, we find the " Grotto 

 Pietro Tamponi, consisting of several chambers, and situated on 

 the small Island of Tavolara, in the Gulf of Terranova, a few miles 

 off the northeast coast of Sardinia. The upper chamber of this 

 grotto contains numerous remains of the rodent Lagomys sardus 

 {Giebel's variety corsicanus). The lower chamber has produced the 

 avian remains." 



