.8,, RECENT RESEARCHES IN FOSSIL BIRDS. 271 



Milne-Edwards proposed the na.me Lauyillafdia for a bird represented 

 by an imperfect skeleton from Montmartre, which had been tentatively 

 placed by Cuvier among the Picarians. That this bird was not a 

 Picarian appeared indisputable to M. Milne-Edwards, by whom it 

 was transferred to the Passeres, with the suggestion that it might be 

 allied to Promerops. The two skeletons described in the memoir 

 before us are found by Dr. Plot to belong to the genus Laiivillavdia, of 

 which they indicate two new species. A careful study of their struc- 

 ture reveals the fact that these skeletons belonged to a bird closely 

 allied to the thrushes, but with shorter feet. On comparison with 

 recent birds, the only one which presents a similarity is ihexdire Havt- 

 laiibia of Madagascar, commonly known as the Madagascar Thrush. 

 That bird is a peculiar intermediate type, having the habits of a 

 starling and the structure of a thrush, although the feet are smaller 

 than in the true thrushes. There is, accordingly, no doubt as to the 

 close alliance of Havtlaiibia and Laiiyillardia, the latter being dis- 

 tinguished by its more powerful beak and shorter leg-bones : the pro- 

 portions of the latter approximating the extinct genus to the Picarians. 

 Similar Picarian features are exhibited by the limbs of the aberrant 

 Madagascar starling-like bird known as Euvyceros. 



We thus have evidence, observes Dr. Plot, " at the epoch of the 

 Paris gypsum, of the existence of birds intermediate between the 

 thrushes and the starlings, allied to the syndactylous Picarians by 

 the proportions of the leg and foot, but true Passerines as regards 

 the arrangement of the toes, and represented at the present day by 

 the Madagascar Thrush." Hcivtlauhia, it may be added, is a bird of 

 slow and clumsy build, which could only be expected to survive 

 in a region where the struggle for existence was not so severe as it is 

 on most of the continents. The lemurs and civets of Madagascar have 

 already suggested a comparison of the mammalia of that island with 

 those of the Upper Eocene of France; and we now have evidence 

 of a distinct connection between the bird-faunas of the two areas. 



REFERENCES. 



I. Ameghino, C. — Aves Fosiles Argentinas, Revist. Argent. Hist. Nat., vol. i., i8gi, 



pp. 255-259. 

 2. Enumeracion de las Aves Fosiles de la Republica Argentina, Revist. 



Argent. Hist. Nat., vol. i., pp. 441-453, 1891. 

 3. Flot. — Description de deux Oiseaux nouveaux du Gypse parisien, Mem. Soc. 



Geol. France — Pal., vol. i., fasc. 4, 10 pp., pi. xviii., 1891. 

 4 Hutton, F. W. — On the Classification of the Moas, Neiv Zealand Journal 



of Science, vol. i., pp. 247-249, 1891. 

 5. Lydekker, R. — "Catalogue of the Fossil Birds in the Collection of the British 



Museum." S,vo, London, 1891, 368 pp., illustrated. 

 6. On British Fossil Birds, Ibis, 1891, pp. 381-410. 



7. Moreno, F., and Mercerat, A. — Les Pajaros Fosiles de la Republica 



Argentina, An. Mus. La Plata, vol, i., plates, 1891. 



8. Shufeldt, R. W. — Tertiary Fossils of North American Birds, T/i^ ^ «A, 1891, 



PP- 365-368. 



R. Lydekker. 



