27-4 AXXUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



mesozoie rocks is noticed in the supplement to the fifth edition of 

 Lyell's "Manual of Geology " 1859, as having been made in 1858 in 

 the Upper Greensand, near Cambridge, England. The bird in this 

 instance was rather larger than the common pigeon, and probably 

 belonged to the order natatores, and, like most of the gull tribe, had 

 well-developed wings. 



In deposits of the tertiary age, the remains of birds are not uncom- 

 mon. The British Museum contains specimens from nine localities in 

 French and English Eocene and Miocene deposits, and has also the 

 remains of a large bird from the Sewalik Hills of India ; casts of the 

 bones and egg of the 2Epyornis from Madagascar, and the entire 

 skeleton of the Dinornis, and very numerous separate bones of this 

 gemis and Palapteryx from New Zealand. With the two exceptions 

 of the Eocene slate rocks of Glaris, in which the almost entire- skele- 

 ton of a small passerine bird, about the size of a lark, has been dis- 

 covered, and the gypsum quarries of Montmartre, where two or three 

 connected skeletons of different species of birds have been found, 

 these remains consist of detached bones or fragments only, or of eggs 

 (from Auvergne) or feather impressions (from Aix and Bonn). In- 

 deed, the whole collection of Ornitholites known could be displayed 

 in a single table-case of ordinary size. 



This, of course, is exclusive of the great New Zealand and Mada- 

 gascar wingless birds, the Dinornis and JEpyornis, the Notornis and 

 Palapteryx, which, like the Dodo and Solitaire, have perhaps all been 

 exterminated by the agency of man, or within the historic period. 

 When we compare this dearth of evidence in the geological record 

 with the vast numbers of species of living birds (very partially illus- 

 trated by the collection of stuffed examples in the Ornithological 

 Gallery of the British Museum), we cannot but ask the question, 

 Why are no fossil birds found in strata in which remains of other ani- 

 mals frequently occur, which at first sight appear as little likely to 

 have been preserved as the bones and feathers of a bird ? Sir Charles 

 Lyell remarks, that " the powers of flight possessed by most birds 

 would insure them against perishing by numerous casualties to which 

 quadrupeds are exposed during floods." And again, "If they chanced 

 to be drowned, or to die when swimming on the water, it would 

 scarcely ever happen that they would be submerged, so as to become 

 preserved in sedimentary deposits." 



That they can be readily preserved under favorable circumstances 

 is proved by the fine examples found at Montmartre and Glaris. 



Quite recently, however, there has been discovered in the well- 

 known lithographic limestones of Solenhofen, near Munich, Germany, 

 the remains of a most curious feathered animal, the exact nature of 

 which geologists are not as yet fully agreed upon, but which Prof. 

 Owen is inclined to regard as a bird. The age of the lithographic 



O O ^ L 



limestones of Solenhofen is supposed to be that of the Lias, the forma- 

 tion being of marine origin, and abounding in remains of cuttle-fishes, 

 ammonites, Crustacea, fishes, and also of winged insects and pterodac- 

 tyls. From the immense demand for this stone for lithography, the 

 quarries are as extensive as any in Europe. The quarrymen work 

 upon the lines of stratification, which are beautifully parallel, and all 

 the fossils are found upon the natural surfaces, presenting an impres- 





