1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 295 



its having set up throat irritation, less severe, but more prolonged, 

 than that caused by chlorine fumes. 



Papers on formalin are becoming numerous. Among them we 

 notice one by O. A. Sayce, published in the Victorian Naturalist for 

 December, 1895, pp. 101-104. The author has used formalin for the 

 preservation of plants, and finds that the chlorophyll is not dissolved 

 out as it is with alcohol. To faciUtate the penetration of formalin 

 into animals with a thick integument, he has adopted two plans with 

 success, one is to kill by immersion in glacial acetic acid for a minute 

 or two, or less, according to circumstances, and, without washing the 

 acid out, to place the specimen at once in 5 per cent, formalin, 

 washing the acid out on the following day with fresh 5 per cent, 

 formalin. The other method is to heat the solution, which, however, 

 weakens it by driving off the formic aldehyde. 



Phororhacos at the British Museum. 



Some months ago (Natural Science, vol. vii., p. 166 ; September, 

 1895) we drew attention to a paper by Dr. F. Ameghino describing a 

 number of very remarkable fossil birds from the Santa Cruz beds of 

 Patagonia. The whole of this collection has recently been purchased 

 by the Trustees of the British Museum, and is now in part exhibited 

 at the Natural History Museum, where it forms one of the most 

 valuable and interesting additions that have been made to the 

 collections during the last few years. Besides the remains of 

 Plwrovhacos and several other " Stereornithes," it includes a consider- 

 able number of ordinary carinate birds of smaller size belonging to 

 several families. Of the gigantic forms, PJiororhacos is by far the best 

 known, the greater part of the skeleton being represented in the collec- 

 tion. The mandible of PhororJiacos longissimus, the largest species, is 

 certainly one of the most remarkable specimens in the Museum, and it 

 can easily be understood how Ameghino, with only a fragment to go 

 upon, imagined that he was dealing with the mandible of a large eden- 

 tate mammal. The nearly complete specimen measures about 56 cm. 

 (22 inches) in length and 7 cm. (2| inches) across the widest part of the 

 symphysis ; the whole is exceedingly massive. The skull found with 

 it was about 2 feet in length, but unfortunately was so fragile that 

 only some fragments were preserved. Of the smaller species, a com- 

 plete skull and mandible, together with a great part of the rest of the 

 skeleton, are shown. The skull (for a figure of which we are 

 indebted to the editor of The Ibis) resembles that of a raptorial bird 

 in its general aspect, and particularly in its powerful hooked beak, 

 which, however, differs from that of Accipitrine birds in its great 

 depth and compression. The quadrate of this specimen shows 

 clearly the presence of two heads for articulation with the skull, and 

 this character, together with many others in other parts of the 

 skeleton, is evidence that these birds were not Ratitae but Carinatai 



