VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY IN 1910 675 



Remains of wading-birds from the Pleistocene asphalt-beds 

 of Rancho la Brea, near Los Angeles, California, form the sub- 

 ject of a paper by Mr. L. H. Miller, published in the Geological 

 Bulletin of the University of California, vol. v, pp. 439-48. 

 Several of the specimens described are referable to the typical 

 group of storks {Ciconiince), which is nowadays unknown in the 

 district, and represent an extinct species of Ciconia and the living 

 jabiru {Mycteria ainericana). The stork {Ciconia maltha) is in some 

 respects intermediate between Ciconia and Eitxcmtra, thereby 

 suggesting that these two genera might well be merged in one. 

 The other bones belong to two cranes, one of which (Grus minor) 

 is extinct. In a second communication on the subject published 

 in the same journal (vol. vi. pp. 1-19) Mr. Miller describes 

 remains of condors, in which group the formation is remarkably 

 rich. On the evidence of the metatarsus alone, four species are 

 recognised, of which the first is identified with the Californian 

 condor {Gymnogyps californianus). The second type is referred 

 to an extinct species {SarcorhampJius clarki) a true condor, while 

 the third and fourth are assigned to new genera, under the names 

 of Cathatornis 3.r\d Pleistogyps. The last was a gigantic bird, equal 

 in size to the previously described Teratornis merriami. 



Since its original description by Sir R. Owen in 1873 the 

 imperfect skull of the saw-billed bird {Odontopteryx toliapica) from 

 the London Clay of Sheppey, preserved in the British Museum, 

 has remained the sole evidence of its genus and species. When 

 complete this skull probably measured something like six inches 

 in length. The discovery has, however, been announced by Mr. 

 B. Spulski, in the second number of Der Geologe, of the skull of 

 a much larger species of the same genus in Tertiary strata in 

 Brazil, the total skull-length being about 20 inches. The name 

 O. longirostris is proposed for the Brazilian species. 



Fossilised birds' feathers have been recorded from about 

 fourteen localities — with one exception of Tertiary age ; and on 

 account of this rarity reference may be made to Mr. F. Chapman's 

 notice in vol. xxiii. part i, of the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 of Victoria, of a fossil of this nature from the Tertiary ironstone 

 of Redruth, Victoria. Determination of the genus of the specimen, 

 which is in the form of impressions on the two halves of a split 

 nodule, seems impossible, but it is suggested that it may have 

 belonged to one of the smaller waders, such as an ibis. 



To the Ibis for 1910 (ser. 9, vol. iv. p. 759), Mr. E. Bidwell 



