BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.G.S. 361 



very nearly, if not entirely identical with the common domestic 

 rat. The other bones are entirely those of birds, several species 

 being represented and some of rather large size. There are a 

 few tarso-metatarsal bones of perching birds, and some of a 

 raptorial kind about the size of a kite. From this I should 

 conclude that the cave has been filled with bones brought by 

 birds of prey, though it seems rather strange to find them in 

 such quantities and spread over such a wide surface. It is well 

 known that rats are very favorite food with hawks &c, and I 

 remember finding a large quantity of rats' bones close by a nest 

 of one of our common swamp hawks. This was at Musquito 

 Plains, where a small and probably undescribed rat forms burrows 

 in great numbers close by the sandhills, which abound in several 

 localities. 



Upon showing these fossils, if they may be called so, to Mr. J. 

 Brazier, he mentioned that he had found a similar deposit at an 

 island off New Caledonia with a large number of the remarkable 

 land-shells, Bulimus senilis, Gass. The history of this species is 

 worth recording here. It was sent home in 1868 to Mons. P. 

 Gruestier by one of Marist missionaries, the Rev. Pere Lambert. 

 It is a large, imperforate, heavy, thick, oval shell, of a chalky 

 white color, as it is always found dead and without any trace of 

 epidermis, having been exposed to the action of air or water or 

 buried. Suture compressed, a little jagged ; spire elongate, 

 conical, apex acute. Whorls from 6 to 7£, convex, the last about 

 three quarters of tne whole length. Aperture elongate, narrow, 

 auricular, angular above, very much reflected below, columella 

 solid, furnished with a thick plait, rounded, ascending, parietal 

 fold dentiform, conical descending, peristome very thick, joined 

 to the columellar callosity, labrum sinuous, broadly notched 

 towards the summit, lines of growth very distinct, forming a 

 stout varix, especially anteriorly, where it is in some specimens 

 25 millim. wide. Sometimes the specimens show traces of color, 

 but I have never seen any, and the specimens shown me by Mr. 



