1896.] 



NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



513 



the tibio tarsus has been figured, in all the works at hand, as 



well as with the tibio-tarsi of representative 

 groups of existing types. 



By differential diagnosis, I am satisfied 

 that its owner was a Tantalus, and that too, 

 very near Tantalus loculator. Moreover it 

 was a T'a?ito^«.sof almost precisely the same 

 size as T. loculator, and its ti bio-tarsus pre- 

 sents characters agreeing very closely with 

 that species. The agreement is so close 

 that it would appear unnecessary to remove 

 it from that genus, I therefore propose the 

 following : 

 Tantalus milne-edwardsii n. sp. 



Based upon the upper part of the right 



tibio-tarsus (nearly complete). Characters 



as in Tantalus loculator, to which latter 



species, the present one must have been 



closely related. This species I name in 



honor of the very distinguished French 



savant Professor Alphonse MilueEdwards, 

 Fig. 1. Anterior aspect i t i i • a i • j.i . 



of the tibio tarsus of Tan- ^^'^^^ "^^ only has assisted me in the present 



talus mUne-edwnrdsli, being paper, but to whom modern science owes so 



the upper part from the ^^^^^^^ j^ ^^ ^ departments. 



right leg. rsatural size; . •' ^ 



drawn by the author.^ The specimen was collected at Grive- 



St. Alban (Isere), and it is at this writing in the collection of 

 Mr. Jno. Eyerman, of Easton, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.* 



Specimen No. 13, (the lower half of a bird's tarso-metatarsus, 

 from the right pelvic limb), evidently belonged to some adult, me- 

 dium sized species of a falconine form, probably now extinct. As I 

 have not the proper material in sufficient quantity to compare this 

 specimen with, I do not feel warranted in naming it. 



^ After this drawing was made, two other small fragments were found that, 

 when placed in .situ, simply completed the distal broken part of this fragment. 



* In comparing this bone, the following works and the plates and figures 

 thereto were also examined. Cuvier : Recherches sur les ossements fossiles, 

 t. Ill, p. 327, pi. LXXIII, fig. 14 {Ibis) ; P Gervais : Oiseaux fossiles, these, 

 1844, p. 39; Idem, Jour. 1. Iiistitut., 1844, p. 293; Ide7n, Zoologie et Palaeon- 

 tologie franpaises, 1st edit., p. 230, pi. XLIX, figs. 2, 3, p. L, fig. 1 {Nume- 

 nius gypsorum) ; 2d ed., 1859, p. 410; Giebel : Fauna der Vorwelt, 1847, t. 

 II, p. 28 (Tantalus fossitis). I think the specimen here alluded to is either 

 a, Numenius or an Ibis, surely not a Tantalus. 



