1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 365 
there is no geological basis for Ameghino’s asserted discovery of the 
Cretaceous ancestors of the mammalia in that region (Amer. Journ. 
Sci. [4], vol. iv., pp. 327-354, Nov. 1897). He finds, apparently, 
Jurassic rocks there on the Mayer river; he also identifies the sup- 
posed Cretaceous series containing Dinosaurian bones. When in 
Patagonia, however, he never discovered either a mammal bone 
or a tooth in the deposits yielding Dinosaurian remains, and he 
arrived at the conclusion that the beds containing Pyrotheriwim were 
not only later than these, but probably more recent even than 
the Marine Patagonian Formation itself. His words are :—“ It is 
certainly remarkable that in these beds containing Dinosaurian 
remains, associated, according to Ameghino, with the remains of 
mammals, some of them, as for example Pyrotheriwm, of immense 
size, only a little less than that of the elephant and consequently 
easily to be seen, I could have searched for weeks without ever 
finding a single mammalian bone, while every day I found Dino- 
saurian remains.” 
We await Dr Ameghino’s observations on Mr Hatcher's results 
with great interest, for on the settlement of the Patagonian prob- 
lem great issues depend. It is to be hoped that ere long some 
other geologist skilled in the modern methods of stratigraphy will 
investigate the subject and give us another independent opinion. 
THE AEPYORNIS OF MADAGASCAR 
WE have several times referred to the important results of Dr 
Forsyth Major’s explorations and researches in Madagascar. We 
now have the pleasure of directing attention to the latest fruit of 
his labours in the form of a nearly complete skeleton of the extinct 
struthious bird, Aepyornis, which was mounted for exhibition last 
month in the public galleries of the British Museum (Natural History), 
South Kensington. The skeleton is shown in the accompanying 
photograph (Plate X.), for which we are indebted ‘to the courtesy of 
the Editor of the Geological Magazine, and it was described 
last June in the journal just mentioned by Mr C. W. Andrews. 
The bird must have been about five feet in height when alive, so 
that it represents one of the smaller species of the genus. The 
bones do not belong to one and the same individual, but they have 
been selected from a very large series and have every appearance of 
giving the animal its correct proportions. The skull is imperfect in 
front, but the top of the brain-case is marked with rows of deep 
pits, which appear to indicate the original presence of a crest of 
large feathers. The mandible is very stout. The vertebral column, 
as reconstructed, consists of twenty true cervicals and eight vertebrae 
bearing free ribs; the fused pelvic vertebrae are about twenty in 
