270 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



JUNE, 



The description by MM. Moreno and Mercerat of an extinct 

 genus of Penguin {PalcBOsphenisctis) in the Lower Tertiary of Pata- 

 gonia is very significant, when we bear in mind that another 

 {Palceeudyptes) occurs in the Eocene of New Zealand, and tends to 

 support the view of these writers that South America was connected 

 with New Zealand and Australia by means of an antarctic continent. 



From the earlier Tertiary birds of South America, we pass by an 

 easy transition to those of the higher Tertiary of a district in North 

 America treated of in Dr. Shufeldt's memoir. The bird-remains there 

 noticed were obtained from Pliocene deposits in the Silver Lake 

 region in the south-west of Oregon. The collection is unusually 

 extensive, comprising remains referred to upwards of fifty-one species, 

 thirteen of which are regarded as new. Since Dr. Shufeldt's memoir 

 is only preliminary to a fully illustrated monograph, we must reserve 

 our judgment as to the affinities of these extinct types until the 

 appearance of the latter. Of the collection as a whole, the author 

 observes that it is worthy of attention that even in an horizon of 

 Pliocene age, " many of the species were identical with those now 

 existing, and in the case of the extinct ones, they were forms that, in 

 the majority of instances, would not be out of place even in our 

 present day avi-fauna, belonging as they did, in most instances, to 

 modern genera and groups." So far, indeed, as we can gather from 

 a perusal of the memoir, the only new genus [Palaotetvix) is formed 

 for the reception of a large grouse belonging to a hitherto unknown type. 



As being of a faunistic nature, the paper marked No. 6 appro- 

 priately follows the preceding one. Instead, however, of being the 

 preliminary notice of fuller work to come, it is a resume of the present 

 state of our knowledge of the fossil birds of Britain. A reference 

 (in many cases necessarily very brief) will be found to every species 

 hitherto recorded from that area. As the total number of species 

 mentioned but slightly exceeds sixty, of which some forty-five are 

 still existing, it is manifest that there is yet much work remaining to 

 be done (if materials are but forthcoming) before we can be said to 

 have acquired any adequate knowledge of the British fossil birds of 

 even one geological epoch. 



We have reserved to the last our notice of the memoir standing 

 third on our list, not for the reason that it is by any means lacking 

 in interest, but because it treats of only two species which have but 

 little connection with any of those hitherto mentioned. More or less 

 nearly complete skeletons of birds from the Upper Eocene gypsum 

 quarries of Montmartre, on the outskirts of Paris, have been known 

 since the time of Cuvier. These are, however, of comparative rarity, 

 and in some cases are in a condition not admitting of satisfactory 

 determination. The two skeletons described by Dr. Plot are, on the 

 other hand, in an excellent state of preservation, and are of special 

 interest from a distributional point of view. 



In his classic work on the fossil birds of France, Professor A. 



