570 LHters, Eriracfs, Notices, ^c, 



Althonglj I heartily deplore the destnietiou of such orna- 

 mental visitors as the Hoopoe and the Avocet, and of such 

 residents as the Chough and the Bearded Tit, I cannot 

 entertain the same feelings in regard to the shooting of 

 examples of such species as the Melodious Warbler. I do 

 not think the passing observation of a species not easily 

 identified should be accepted as sufficient evidence of its 

 occurrence, except in a few cases. For instance, I have seen, 

 and heard, as 1 believe, the closely allied H. icterina on two 

 occasions in Sussex, but imtil the bird has been obtained 

 I cannot ask others to accept my identification. 



Yours &c,, 



W. RUSKIX BuTTERFrELD. 



4 Stanhope Place, 



St. Leonard's-on-Sea, 

 28th May, 1900. 



New Fossil Bird from the Sto?iesfie/d Slate. — At the 

 meeting of the Geological Society on March 21st last, 

 Prof. Seeley described a supposed new fossil bird from the 

 Stonesfield Slate as follows: — 



" During his residence at Oxford the late Earl of Eunis- 

 killen made a collection of Ornithosaurian bones from 

 Stonesfield, which was acquired by the British Museum in 

 1866. Among these is one identified by the author in 1899 

 as the right humerus of a bird about as hrge as a Flamingo. 

 The bone is complete, except for fracture through the 

 proximal articulation, and the specimen is, on the whole, 

 M'ell preserved. The chief characters available for com- 

 parison are the form of the shaft, the character of the 

 proximal end, especially the ulnar tuberosity and the radial 

 crest, and the form of the distal end. The character which 

 first showed the fossil to be a bird was the ulnar tuberosity ; 

 probably the Flamingo approaches as closely as any living 

 senus to the Stonesfield fossil in this feature. The radial 

 crest shows affinities with those of the Flamingo and the 

 Eider-Duck. The impression left by the humero-cubital 

 muscle on the external surface above the condyles is almost 



