242 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



existing species that do appear to make any approach 

 to it — such as the falcons, dodlets, butcher-birds, &c, 

 — owe their " teeth," not to any development of the 

 osseous tissue, but to pointed processes of the horny 

 enveloping sheath. 



The fact that the beak of Odontopteryx is longer 

 than the cranium at once suggests affinities with the 

 aquatic birds, as this is a character rare in other 

 orders ; and another feature — the absence of a gland- 

 pit over the orbit — seems to limit comparisons to the 

 families Totipalmates and Lamellirostres. Taking 

 into consideration all structural peculiarities, Professor 

 Owen has decided that this extinct genus was pro- 

 bably a piscivorous bird, with webbed feet, and 

 having most affinities with the Anatidae. 



It is a most singular fact, and yet one which is 

 established beyond a doubt, that birds of the stru- 

 thious order existed in the area of Western Europe 

 in the early part of the Eocene period. In the Paris 

 basin, limb bones have been found that clearly indi- 

 cate a genus of Ratitae, to which the name Gastoniis 

 has been applied ; and one British fossil — a cranium 

 from the London Clay of Sheppey — offers interesting 

 confirmation of the truth of this discovery. The 

 eminent indefatigable palaeontologist, Professor Owen, 

 who has contributed by far the largest share to our 

 knowledge of the British fossil birds, provisionally 

 refers the remarkable skull to a new genus, termed 

 Dasomis, but thinks there is just a possibility that it 

 may eventually be found to belong to the Paris basin 

 genus, Gastoniis. In size, it is quite equal to that of 

 the great extinct Dinornis giganteus of New Zealand, 

 and the few definite characters that can be discerned 

 in the specimen (which was considerably broken and 

 abraded before its entombment in the argillaceous 

 sediment of the London Clay), seem to show that its 

 possessor was intermediate in organisation between 

 the Dinornithidne and the Struthionidae, but most 

 nearly allied to the latter. 



Argillornis is another genus of birds from the 

 London Clay, of which one species {A. longipcnnis) 

 has been described by Professor Owen. The genus 

 was first founded by the Professor in 1877, upon 

 portions of the'right and left humeri of a bird, the study 

 of which led to the conclusion that the form to which 

 they belonged was generically distinct from any now 

 living, but not very far removed from the albatross 

 (Diomcdca exnlans). Two years afterwards, an 

 interesting portion of the skull of a bird from the same 

 deposit, and the same locality, was discovered, and 

 the author of Argillornis claimed it as part of the 

 skeleton of this avian genus ; from its dimensions, too, 

 compared with those of the previously described 

 humeri, it was inferred to belong to the same species. 

 The specimen when found was very much worn, the 

 cancellous tissue of the bone being in most parts 

 exposed. Probably, when perfect, it was somewhat 

 more than seven inches in length, and there is nothing 

 to make improbable the supposition that the alveolar 



borders were dentigerous, although further fossil 

 evidence will have to be supplied before anything 

 definite can be known on this point. However, it is 

 interesting to notice, in the example already described, 

 that "at one short tract 011 the right side, which 

 appears to be the uninjured alveolar border, there are 

 the outlets of four small vertical pits, like the sockets 

 of teeth, but filled with matrix." (Owen.) 



Allies of the kingfishers lived in the Eocene period : 

 the only evidence of this fact yet discovered is to be 

 found in a specimen of the hinder part of a small 

 cranium. Originally, this fossil was figured in 

 Konig's " Icones Fossiles Sectiles," and described as 

 belonging to an extinct species of gull, being accord- 

 ingly named Larus toliapicus. But Professor Owen 

 has proved this to be a wrong identification, and 

 pointed out that many structural peculiarities separate 

 it from the gulls and approximate it to the kingfishers ; 

 nevertheless, it differs generically from the skull in all 

 known living forms, and has, consequently, been 

 regarded as the type of a new genus, Ilatcyornis. 

 Konig's specific name is retained. 



The remains of a small bird allied to the vultures 

 are the only other avian fragments from the London 

 Clay that have, to the present time, been deter- 

 mined with anything like precision. The fossil 

 evidence of this interesting species consists of a 

 nearly perfect sternum, associated with the proximal 

 ends of the coracoids, a dorsal vertebra, distal end of 

 the left femur, proximal end of the left tibia, and 

 fragments of ribs. Professor Owen has established for 

 the bird indicated by these bones, the new genus and 

 species, Lithornis vultnrinus. It is chiefly remark- 

 able as being of small size, compared with its 

 accipitrine congeners of the present day. 



We may just remark that a long bone from the 

 London Clay of Sheppey, without any traces of the 

 articular extremities, was described by Dr. Bowerbank 

 in 1854, as being the shaft of the tibia of a large bird 

 allied to, and a little smaller than, the emu ; he 

 named it Lithornis emuinus. But it ought to be 

 remembered that a microscopical study of the tissue 

 of the bone was the basis upon which the conclusions 

 were founded, and hence not much reliance can be 

 placed upon them.* 



A considerable number of bird-remains have been 

 obtained from 'the Middle and Upper Eocene strata 

 of Hordwell Cliff, Hampshire, and a good series is to 

 be seen in the British Museum ; but hitherto no 

 attempt seems to have been made to determine the 

 affinities of these interesting relics. 



It would be wandering from our present purpose 

 were we to consider the abundant avian fauna repre- 

 sented ,in the Miocene deposits of the continent, 

 although a study of the fossil remains would convey 



* Dr. Bowerbank's specimen, and also the shaft of a bird- 

 bone described by Professor Seeley under the name of Mega- 

 lornis (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xxx. p. 708), are now believed 

 to belong to the Argillornis of Professor Owen. 



