470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



alveoles of reptiles, and which probably corresponded, not with true 

 teeth, but with thickenings of the horn of the bill. The bill also, to- 

 ward its anterior third, seems to have represented a real tooth, but a 

 tooth of a bony nature and of continuous substance with the bill 

 itself. This mode of dentition had been previously observed by Rich- 

 ard Owen in the Odontopteryx toliapica. 



The lower mandible is marked by its terminal extremity, which 

 seems to have been slender, and by its hinder half presenting faintly- 

 accentuated muscular attachments. 



A part of the sternum does not permit us to say whether that por- 

 tion of the skeleton had a keel. The shoulder seems to have been 

 composed of a quite short breast-bone with a wide posterior articular 

 surface, of a coracoid bone and of a scapulum, the group isolated and 

 quite different from the single bone of the ostrich. The humerus is, 

 like all the other bones of the wing, more voluminous than in the 

 ostrich. The cubitus rather recalls the shape of that bone in ordi- 

 nary birds, and bears marks indicatory of feathers. The radius was 

 thin, the metacarpians appear to have been independent, offering a 

 characteristic of great value, for it occurs only in two other orders. 

 The iliac bone, very distinct, is remarkable for the sloping character 

 of its posterior border. It is very difficult in the face of such charac- 

 teristics to fix the true affinities of the gastornis. MM. Hebert, Ed. 

 Lartet, and R. Owen, have expressed opinions on this point, and the 

 latter is inclined to refer the fossil bird to the order of the waders, 

 and more especially to the rails. M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards is of a 

 different opinion, and is rather disposed, on the ground of a variety 

 of osteological traits, to classify the gastornis with the ducks. But 

 he is prompt to recognize that the Eocene animal offers peculiarities 

 so different from anything shown in living nature that it is impos- 

 sible to place the gastornis in any of the established natural groups. 

 Another gastornis has been found at Reims, which Dr. Lemoine has 

 described under the name of Gastornis minor ; and the author has 

 besides found the remains of two entirely different genera of birds. 

 Translated from La Nature. 



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THE BOOK-MEN. 



Br the late Hon. T. WHAKTON COLLENS. 



WHAT a vast difference there is between us and our ancestors 

 who lived three thousand years ago ! What savages they 

 were ! What a polished people are we ! Surrounded by all the glo- 

 ries and lights, blessings and hopes of civilization, we can hardly 

 realize the fact that we are the descendants of men who roamed in 



