FOSSIL BIRDS 281 



Grraculavus, Falxotringa, Telmatornis, Hesperornis, and Ir.hthyornis. 

 The last two — occurring in the Cretaceous Shales of Kansas — are 

 placed by him in a distinct " Subclass " of Birds, Odontornithes.^ 

 The affinities of the others can scarcely yet be determined. Baptornis 

 seems to be allied to Enaliwnis ; Graculavus in the first notice was 

 referred to the Steganopodes ; and Palseotringa and Telmatornis 

 respectively to the LiMlCOL^ and Rallidse ; it is, however, highly 

 probable that all were toothed. Laornis, from the Cretaceous Marls 

 of New Jersey, was as large as a Swan. 



The Lower Eocene furnishes still more Ornitholites. First in 

 point of size are those of Gastornis, found by M. Gaston Plants and 

 soon after by M. Herbert in a conglomerate below the Plastic Clay 

 (Woolwich beds) of Bas-Meudon. It has lately been recognized by 

 Dr. V. Lemoine in beds of nearly the same age at Rheims, and by 

 Mr. E. T. Newton in England near Croydon (Trans. Zool. Soc. xii. 

 p. 143). Much difference of opinion has obtained as to the affinities 

 of this bird, which was far larger than an Ostrich, but it was 

 certainly incapable of flight, and was probably one of the Batitse. 

 The owner of an imperfect cranium from the London Clay, for 

 which Sir R Owen (Trans. Zool. Soc. vii. p. 145) proposed the 

 name Dasornis, as well as Prof. Cope's Diatryma (Proc. Ac. N. S. 

 Pliilad. 1876, p. 11) seem to have been other members of the same 

 gi'oup. Phororhacos and Brontornis, giant-birds," from the Lower 

 Tertiary of South America should also be named here. The 

 London Clay of Sheppey has likewise supplied some long but 

 broken humeri, described by Sir R. Owen (Q. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 xxxiv. p. 129) as Argillornis, whose nearest affinities seem to lie 

 with the Steganopodes, and not, as had been supposed, Avith the 

 Diomedeidai (Albatros), especially if a skull from the same deposits 

 be rightly referred. To the same bird belong, apparently, remains 

 described under the preoccupied names of Lithornis and Megalornis ; 

 and from the same locality the zoologist last-named has also added 

 {op. cit. xxix. p. 511) a yet more remarkable bird in the Odontopteryx 

 ioliapica, the edges of whose jaws were serrated like those of 

 certain Tortoises, but the general character was Steganopodous, 

 with a similar division of the horny sheath of the mandible into 

 several pieces. A small skull, also from Sheppey, M^as described by 

 him as Halcyornis, and regarded as allied to the Kingfisher, but it 

 seems more nearly related to the GuLLS, further evidence to this 

 effect being afforded by an undoubtedly Larine humerus probably 

 belonging to the genus described. The equivalent beds at High- 

 gate have supplied the sternum of a HERON-like bird, for which 

 the name Proherodms has been suggested by the writer; a tarso- 



^ Am. Journ. Sci. ser. 3, x. p, 403. 



2 See Mercerat and Moreno, An. Mus. La Plata, i. (1891), and Ameyhino, 

 Revist. Argent. Hist. Nat. i. pp. 441-453. " 



/ 



