FOSSIL BIRDS 287 



genia, Avith which the Italian G. turfa is probably identical ; but 

 more interesting than that are the very numerous relics of two 

 species, the concomitants even now of the Reindeer, which were 

 abundant in that country when this beast flourished there and have 

 followed it in its northward retreat. There are the Willow-GROUSE, 

 Lagopus albus,^ and the Snowy Owl, Nydea scandiaca — a single bone 

 of the latter, found in the historic deposits of Kent's Hole near 

 Torquay, giving indication that a similar state of things once 

 existed in our island, while yet another fact quite as suggestive is 

 afforded by the recognition of many bones of the Capercally, 

 Tetrao urogallus, from caves explored by the late Messrs. Backhouse 

 in Teesdale, as well as from Kent's Hole by the present writer.- 



It is not a little singular that remains of the species last men- 

 tioned have also been found in another country which it now no 

 longer inhabits and under circumstances very different ; for the 

 next ancient Birds' bones that have to be mentioned are those from 

 the kitchen-middens of Denmark, among which occur those of this 

 bird, shewing the co-existence with it of pine-forests in that country, 

 though on other evidence it is plain that such forests cannot have 

 existed there for many centuries. Bones of the G A re-fowl, Alca 

 impennis, found in the same deposits perhaps do not jorove more 

 than that the surrounding seas, though cold, were free from ice in 

 the summer-time. The Birds' remains hitherto recovered from the 

 ruins of the Swiss lake-dwellings are all of species Avhich now occur 

 more or less commonly in the same neighbourhoods, and are there- 

 fore of comparatively little interest. 



On the other hand, the Fens of East Anglia have yielded proofs 

 of a form now extinct not only in England but even in Northern 

 Europe. This is the Pelican, of which two humeri, one from 

 Norfolk and the other most likely from the Isle of Ely, are pre- 

 served in the Museums of Cambridge. Whether the species 

 be identical with either of those now inhabiting the South of 

 Europe, it was undoubtedly a true Pelecanus, and apparently only 

 differed from P. onocrotalus by its larger size. The immature condi- 

 tion of one of the specimens leads to the inference that the bird 

 Avas a native of the locality. 



To sum up this brief survey of our present imperfect knowledge 

 of Fossil Birds, it may suffice to state that nearly all the Plistocene 

 species still survive, at least on continents, for the exceptions lie 



^ I am not aware of any difference between the bones of L. albus and L. 

 scoticus. It may well be that those from the caves of Teesdale, and naturally 

 ascribed to the latter, may be those of the former, in wliich case the identity of 

 conditions once obtaining in England and France could be more clearly made 

 out ; but Reindeer remains are rare in this couutr}^ — A. N. 



- A bone from the Forest-bed of Norfolk is provisionally referred to a young 

 example of this species {Cat. Foss. B. Br. Mits. p. 133). 



