1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 365 



there is no geological basis for Ameghino's asserted discovery of the 

 Cretaceous ancestors of the mammalia in that region (Amer. Journ. 

 Sci. [4], vol. iv., pp. 327-354, Nov. 1897). He finds, apparently, 

 Jurassic rocks there on the Mayer river ; he also identifies the sup- 

 posed Cretaceous series containing Dinosaurian bones. When in 

 Patagonia, however, he never discovered either a mammal bone 

 or a tooth in the - deposits yielding Dinosaurian remains, and he 

 arrived at the conclusion that the beds containing Pyrotherium were 

 not only later than these, but probably more recent even than 

 the Marine Patagonian Formation itself. His words are : — " It is 

 certainly remarkable that in these beds containing Dinosaurian 

 remains, associated, according to Ameghino, with the remains of 

 mammals, some of them, as for example Pyrotherium, of immense 

 size, only a little less than that of the elephant and consequently 

 easily to be seen, I could have searched for weeks without ever 

 finding a single mammalian bone, while every day I found Dino- 

 saurian remains." 



We await Dr Ame°'hino's observations on Mr Hatcher's results 

 with great interest, for on the settlement of the Patagonian prob- 

 lem great issues depend. It is to be hoped that ere long some 

 other geologist skilled in the modern methods of stratigraphy will 

 investigate the subject and give us another independent opinion. 



The Aepyoenis of Madagascar 



We have several times referred to the important results of Dr 

 Forsyth Major's explorations and researches in Madagascar. We 

 now have the pleasure of directing attention to the latest fruit of 

 his labours in the form of a nearly complete skeleton of the extinct 

 struthious bird, Aejyyornis, which was mounted' for exhibition last 

 month in the public galleries of the British Museum (Natural History), 

 South Kensington. The skeleton is shown in the accompanying 

 photograph (Plate X.), for which we are indebted to the courtesy of 

 the Editor of the Geological Magazine, and it was described 

 last June in the journal just mentioned by Mr C. W. Andrews. 

 The bird must have been about five feet in height when alive, so 

 that it represents one of the smaller species of the genus. The 

 bones do not belong to one and the same individual, but they have 

 been selected from a very large series and have every appearance of 

 giving the animal its correct proportions. The skull is imperfect in 

 front, but the top of the brain-case is marked with rows of deep 

 pits, which appear to indicate the original presence of a crest of 

 large feathers. The mandible is very stout. The vertebral column, 

 as reconstructed, consists of twenty true cervicals and eight vertebrae 

 bearing free ribs ; the fused pelvic vertebrae are about twenty in 



