Climbing and Gallinaceous Birds of Devonshire* 227 



This affinity is, perhaps, most strongly marked in several 

 species of the genus Lamna, the teeth of which are abundant 

 in the crag and London clay, and are even occasionally met 

 with in some of our lacustrine deposits, associated with fluvia- 

 tile and land shells. In the coralline beds, and in those 

 marine strata containing the bones of land animals, which 

 have been usually regarded as a part of the crag formation, 

 the teeth of the Carcharias megalodon have not been detected; 

 and they would, therefore, appear to be characteristic of that 

 deposit which extends from Walton, in Essex, along the 

 south coast of Suffolk. As this species has a vertical range 

 from the secondary to the more recent supercretaceous form- 

 ations, its fossilised remains afford the geologist no assistance 

 in the identification of particular strata, if separated by great 

 horizontal distances. Similar teeth are figured by Dr. More- 

 ton, in his synopsis of the cretaceous fossils of the United 

 States ; and they are there said to occur in deposits both of 

 the secondary and tertiary periods. The finest specimens 

 that I have seen are in the Hunterian collection, belonging 

 to the College of Surgeons, from the well-known beds at 

 Maestricht ; and along with these there is one which has been 

 recently brought over, by Mr. Darwin, from South America. 

 In the Island of Malta, the teeth of this shark have been pro- 

 cured in the greatest abundance; but I am not aware that 

 we possess any definite information respecting the geological 

 relations of the beds in that locality, throughout which these 

 fossils appear so plentifully distributed. 



The foreign specimens are usually in a very perfect state ; 

 but those from the crag have lost their covering of enamel 

 and serrated edges, probably depending upon the attrition to 

 which they have been subjected. William Colchester, Esq., 

 of Ipswich, whose collection of crag fossils is one of the 

 choicest extant, has in his possession the tooth from which 

 the accompanying figure was made. Specimens are also in 

 the Ipswich Museum, and in the hands of other collectors in 



Norfolk and Suffolk. 



* 



Art. II. Climbing and Gallinaceous Birds of Devonshire. By 

 E. Moore, M.D. F.L.S., Secretary to the Plymouth Institution. 



To pursue my catalogue of Devon birds, I send those of 

 the two succeeding orders, Scansores and Gallinae. 



It is very possible that the race of the black cock may 

 soon become extinct in Devonshire, as the cultivation and 

 enclosure of great part of Exmoor, and other causes, depend- 



S 2 <JP; 



