Remains of an extinct gigantic Bird. 327 



panying the treatise sent to Copeuhagen iu 1841. More than 

 these two specimens are not mentioned in it ; and conse- 

 quently the above-mentioned large Alectorid bird was founded 

 only on them. But after having sent home his treatise^ 

 Lund must have become aware that he possessed a third bone 

 of this bird^ since in his collection there is, marked with the 

 number 8, the middle portion of a tibia *, about five inches 

 long, covered with incrustations^ which, according to the 

 statement in his own catalogue, was found in the same cave 

 as the two other Alectorid bones, and is described as belong- 

 ing to a gigantic Wader {Stylteycenger) , the name under 

 which Lund also entered the tarso-metatarsal included in the 

 catalogue as No. 9, immediately after the fragment of the 

 tibia; and both these bones agree so completely in form, 

 appearance, and condition that one is quite naturally led to 

 the conclusion that they are remains of one and the same 

 individual. But Lund does not appear to have thought he 

 had found more than these three fragments of this bird, as 

 the name " gigantic Wader " does not occur again in his 

 catalogue, and the denomination " gigantic Alectorid " does 

 not occur at all. 



One of the above-named three bones — the toe-joint — no 

 longer exists ; at any rate I have not been able to find it in 

 Luud^s collection. On the one hand, it seems to me impro- 

 bable that it can have been overlooked, owing to the cir- 

 cumstance that I possess two carefully executed drawings of 

 it, which would greatly facilitate its recognition if I had 

 really met with it ; on the other hand, there seem to be good 

 reasons for believing that it was not in the collection when 

 sent home. There has been no difficulty in finding not only 

 the originals of the other figures accompanying the treatise 

 on the fossil birds, but also the other remains mentioned, 

 though not figured, in that paper ; they are all there, as well 

 as those which were figured — all numbered and entered in 



* By some clerical error or mistake, '' femur," not " tibia," stands in the 

 catalogue ; but there can be no doubt that the bone is a tibia ; and the 

 number on the bone shows that it really is what the catalogue describes 

 as " the middle portion of a femur." 



