Miscellaneous. 235 



THE HOOPOE. TJPUPA EPOPS. 



A fine specimen of the Hoopoe was shot at Longton, not far from 

 Preston, on the 23rd of September last. I saw the bird in the hands 

 of a bird-stuffer in Preston, therefore there can be no mistake re- 

 specting its identity. I never heard of one being taken before in 

 these parts*. John Skaife. 



8 Union Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, 

 Oct. 21, 1841. 



THE HOOPOE. THE ARCTIC GULL. 



On September 25th last, a specimen of the Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 

 was shot near Great Rolbright, Oxon ; it had been seen in the 

 vicinity three or four days, and when shot was very wild ; first start- 

 ing up from a wet furrow in a wheat- stubble field, and settling on a 

 bare space in a turnip-field adjoining, where it would not suffer an 

 approach near enough to be shot, but flew to a sainfoin ground ad- 

 joining, where, at a long distance, it was brought down on the wing. 



On the 28th of the same month a young individual of Lestris pa- 

 rasiticus, Arctic Gull, was shot in this neighbourhood, which I have 

 preserved. — T. Goatley. 



Chipping Norton, Oct. 20, 1841. 



ORNITHICHNITES, OR FOOT-MARKS OF EXTINCT BIRDS. 



At the first meeting of the Association of American Geologists, 

 founded in Philadelphia, on the 2nd of April 1840, (Prof. Hitchcock, 

 Chairman, and Prof. Beck, Secretary,) among other proceedings, 

 specimens were presented of the sandstones of Massachusetts, ex- 

 hibiting the fossil foot-marks, so called f, and observations made 

 in regard to them. This subject was of so much interest as to induce 

 the Association to appoint a committee to visit the localities and to 

 report their conclusions. These were delivered at the next meeting, 

 April 7, 1841. 

 Report on the Ornithichnites or Foot-marks of Extinct Birds in the 



New Red Sandstone of Massachusetts and Connecticut, observed and 



described by Prof. Hitchcock, of Amherst. 



The undersigned, forming the committee to whom the subject of 



* We have recorded two instances of its occurrence in the course of 1840 : 

 — in May, near Swansea, vol. vi. p. 236 ; and in September, near Halifax, 

 ib. p. 159.— Ed. 



f On the subject of these fossil foot-marks see Prof. Hitchcock's paper 

 entitled " Ornithichnology," in Silliman's Journal for January 1836, vol. 

 xxix. art. xx., and the plates by which it is illustrated j also for April 1837, 

 vol. xxxii. p. 175. 



The account of Mr. Cunningham's and Sir P. G. Egerton's communica- 

 tions to the Geological Society, Nov. 21, 1838, (see 'Philosophical Maga- 

 zine ' for Feb. 1839, p. 148,) relative to the impressions at the quarries of 

 Storeton Hill, near Liverpool, had been thus noticed in Silliman's Journal 

 for July 1839, p. 394 : — " We have recently received from Prof. Buckland 

 fine copies of these impressions, and it is no more possible to doubt the 

 genuineness of their originals, than those of the most recent impression of a 

 foot made in any yielding surface of the present hour. The same is true of 

 the impressions of Prof. Hitchcock, whatever doubt may have been felt by 

 some persons who have never examined them." 



