INTRODUCTION. 



In addition to the species of fossil birds represented by remains in 

 the Collection of the Museum, the present Catalogue also includes 

 the whole of the extinct birds (with the exception of those belonging 

 to the suborders Passeres and Picarite) from the Tertiaries of Europe 

 which have received distinct specific names, and have been described 

 or figured with sufficient exactness to entitle them to rank as 

 species '. 



The names of such species as are still extant are printed in Old 

 English characters, while the names and descriptions of those un- 

 represented in the Museum are printed in small t)'pe. 



In regard to classification, the system provisionally adopted by 

 Professor Alfred Newton in the article " Ornithology," published in 

 the ninth edition of the ' Encyclopedia Britaunica,' has been accepted 

 in the main. The writer has, however, followed Professor Huxley 

 in regarding the three primary divisions into which the class is 

 divided as " orders " rather than " subclasses " ; and the major 

 groups of the Carinatae are consequently ranked as " suborders " 

 instead of " orders." The existing EatitsB, with the allied extinct 

 types, are divided only into families. 



Since the majority of fossil birds are mainly known to us by more 

 or less imperfect " long-bones '' and coracoids, such osteological 

 features of the various groups and species as are recorded in the 

 text chiefly relate to these bones. The general osteological features 

 of most of the Cariuatte are, indeed, so similar, that it often requires 



' The following names have been a])plied to fossil European Tertiary bird- 

 remains either without any description at all, or with descriptions which are 

 quite insufficient. Thus from the Pliocene of Italj we have Fidica pisana. 

 FuUyula arctina, F. scptilta, Numeiiius pNoccenus, Ha/his dubiut', and Uria 

 ausonia, proposed by Portis. From the Jliocene of the Orleaunais we have 

 Anser brumeli and Ardea aureUanensis, Milne-Edwards. Milne-Edwards has 

 proposed the names Anas rrassa, A. macropfera, Ardca formosa, Argala 

 arvcruciisig, Himantopus hrevipes, Otis agilis, Paluctiis rapax, Palmortyx inedia, 

 and Puffinus arverncnsis, for birds from the Lower Miocene of Allier. Lastly, 

 Sceley has applied the name Macromia tanaupus to a bird represented by part 

 of 11 long-bone from the Upper Eocene of Hordwell, and that of Ptenornis to a 

 second known by a coracoid from the Lower Miocene of Hempstead. 



