350 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



of the skull of the Odontopteryx toliapicus^ from the London 

 clay of Sheppey. The remains obtained consisted of the 

 brain-case, with the basal portion of both jaws, in which are 

 seen denticulations which are intrinsic parts of the bone, and 

 not simply attachments or insertions, as in the case of other 

 vertebrates, as well as in Professor Marsh's bird. These den- 

 ticulations, or tooth-like portions of the jaws, are of two sizes, 

 the smaller beinsj about half a line in lengjth, and the laro-er 

 from two to three lines, separated by several of the smaller 

 ones. All are of a triangular or compressed conical form, the 

 larger ones resembling fangs. Sections of the denticles show 

 unmistakably the characters of bird bone. The total length 

 of the skull was five or six inches. The bird seems to have 

 approached most nearly to the duck famjly, in some of which, 

 as in the goosanders and the mergansers, the beak is furnished 

 with strong pointed serrations. In them, however, the tooth- 

 like processes belong to the horny bill only, and, according 

 to Professor Owen, the production of the alveolar margin, as 

 far as known, is peculiar to the new fossil. 



Professor Owen concludes that the Odontopteryx was a 

 warm-blooded, feathered biped, with wdngs; and further, that 

 it was web-footed and a fish-eater, and that in the catching 

 of its slippery prey it was assisted by this armature of the 

 jaws. 12 A, July 10, 1873, 215. 



ALLEGED SHOAVER OF FISH-SCALES. 



It is stated that during a heavy thunder-storm near Lake 

 Providence, Louisiana, a number of smajl bodies were found 

 on the ground immediately after the shower, scattered along 

 the shore of the Mississippi River for a distance of forty miles 

 above the lake ; as many as half a bushel being collected 

 around one house. These, on being submitted to critical ex- 

 amination, proved to be scales of the common gar-fish of the 

 South (Lepidosteus). The species inhabits the shallow, mud- 

 dy waters of the South, and sometimes attains a length of 

 five or six feet, and is especially characterized by being in- 

 closed in an almost impenetrable coat of mail (the scales in 

 question), so compact as almost to resist the penetration of a 

 bullet. 



It is very difficult to give credence to this story, as the 

 gar-fish are not particularly abundant, and the method of ag- 



