3G'2 Fossil Birds. 



thing more than one of the intermaxillary bones sawed of, and 

 fitted on the jugal bone of the right side. 



Thus the remains at last met with an honourable burial, on 

 the eve of departure for England, where they would no doubt 

 have astonished the natives, both as to the gigantic fossil pro- 

 ductions of the New World, and as specimens of the critical 

 acumen of our scientific observers. 



The articulating surface plates, or epiphyses of the vertebrae 

 of whales, are not unfrequently found separate, both fossil and 

 recent ; they have occasionally given rise to false notions, and 

 to the dissemination of error. The " New Fossil Genus'' erf 

 Raffinesque, named " Nephrosteon,^^ (Vid. Atlantic Journal,) 

 and the bone on which the genus is constructed, and which this 

 author considers as a portion of the head-plate of a fossil sau- 

 rian, has no other foundation than one of these epiphyses from 

 the remains of a recent spermaceti whale. 



CLASS AVES. 



The fossil remains of birds are of rare occurrence in any 

 country, but particularly so in America ; only one specimen 

 clearly ascertained has fallen under our immediate inspection. 

 This consisted in a femur, imperfect at its upper extremity, of 

 an individual allied to the genus Scolopax, obtained by the late 

 S. W. Conrad. The bone appears to be perfectly mineralized. 

 Cab. of the Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philad. 



Locality^ from a " marl-pit"" in New Jersey. 



CLASS REPTILIA. 

 ORDER CHELONIA. 



Fossil bones and breastplates of turtles are not unfrequently 

 discovered in the Jersey " marl-pits," but are too imperfect to 

 admit of any satisfactory arrangement into genera or species ; 

 they occur principally in the Atlantic secondary. Specimens 

 preserved in the Cab. of A. N. S. and Lye. Nat. Hist. N. York. 

 ( To he condttded in our next Number,) 



