6^6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



contributes a note on some fragments of the shell of an ostrich 

 obtained from superficial deposits in the Banda district of the 

 United Provinces of India. Although somewhat stouter, the 

 shell corresponds very closely in structure with that of the ^gg 

 of the Somali ostrich, but the describer considers himself justified 

 in referring the Indian fragments to a new species, under the 

 name of Struthio indiciis. Although this is not mentioned in 

 the note, there appears to be historical evidence that ostriches 

 formerly ranged over a considerable area in Central Asia, not 

 improbably inclusive of Baluchistan ; and their occurrence in 

 India during the early Pliocene is definitely proved by the 

 Siwalik S. asiaticus. Moreover, at a much later epoch, as is 

 demonstrated by subfossil egg-shells, there was an ostrich in the 

 Government of Cherson, southern Russia ; and during the 

 Pliocene there was a third in Samos. 



One other matter in connection with fossil birds demands 

 brief notice. In my review of vertebrate palaeontology for 1907 

 reference was made to the description by Dr. O. Abel of certain 

 remains from the Eocene of Alabama which he regarded as 

 indicating a new type of large bird {Alabamornis giganted). 

 These remains, which Dr. Abel regarded as coracoids, had been 

 identified by American palaeontologists as the pelvis of a zeuglo- 

 dont skeleton with which they were found in association ; and I 

 am informed by Dr. F. A. Lucas — as mentioned in Nature for 

 December 31, 1910— that not only is the American determination 

 indisputably correct, but that the bones have been mounted in 

 their proper position in the zeuglodont skeleton, which is now 

 exhibited in the United States National Museum. " Alabam- 

 ornis " therefore apparently disappears from the list of extinct 

 birds. 



Extinct reptiles form, as usual, the subject of a large number 

 of papers ; but among these it is possible to refer only to the 

 more important which have come under my notice. The pro- 

 posal of Dr. O. Jaekel to remove the anomodonts (in the wider 

 sense of that term) and chelonians from the Reptilia, and to 

 brigade them with monotreme mammals in a class by them- 

 selves, has been already mentioned. Reference may, however, 

 be made to an earlier paper by the same author, published in the 

 Zool. Ansetger, vol. xxxv. pp. 324-41, in which a revised classi- 

 fication of Reptilia is suggested. According to this arrange- 



