ON THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OP ORNITHOLOGY. 213 



but little remark. The fragments •which have been found are either undistin- 

 guishable, or at any rate have not j^et been distinguished, from the genera and 

 species of the existing creation, though it is highly probable that new forms 

 might in some cases be detected if they were subjected to rigid examination. 

 In the Tertiary and for the most part Eocene strata of the continent, birds' 

 bones have been found in Auvergne, at Pont du Chateau and Gergovia, over- 

 laid by beds of basalt, and in one instance accompanied by fossil eggs ; in the 

 Cantal, at Perpignan, Montpellier, WiluAve, St. Gilles, Sansan (where eggs 

 have also been found), Montmartre, Monte Bolca, Giningen, Kaltennordheim, 

 Ottnmth in Upper Silesia, Westeregeln near Magdeburg, and Neustadt in the 

 Hardt, and are recorded in the writings of Dufrenoy, Bravard, Croizet, Jo- 

 bert. Marcel de Serres, Karg, Cuvier, Mosler, Germar, "Von Meyer, &c. 

 Birds' feathers have been found fossil at Monte Bolca, Aix and Kanstatt. 



Proceeding to the newer Tertiary beds, we meet with remains of birds in 

 the Crag of Suffolk, and in the Plistocene fluvio-lacustrine beds at Lawford 

 (Buckland). M. Lund, whose researches into the bone-caverns of Brazil have 

 already very greatly extended our knowledge of fossil Mammalia, has an- 

 nounced that he has also obtained a considerable variety of fossil birds, in- 

 cluding a Struthious species larger than the existing Rhea of America ; but 

 these remains have not as yet I believe been fully investigated. The same 

 remark also applies to the ornithic remains found by Dr. Falconer in that 

 mine of palaeontology the Siwalik Hills of India. Amidst the extraordinary 

 remains of Mammals and of Reptiles obtained by that gentleman, the bones of 

 several species of Birds were found mostly referable to the Grallatorial order, 

 and exhibiting in some cases very gigantic proportions. As Dr. Falconer's 

 collections are now in course of arrangement at the British Museum, we may 

 hope soon to learn more particulars of these interesting ornithic fossils. 



The Gryphus antiquitatis of Schubert, a supposed colossal ornitholite from 

 Siberia, appears to be either altogether apocryphal, or to be founded on the 

 cranium of a Rhinoceros, mistaken for that of a bird. 



In bone-caverns fossil birds have been found in company with extinct 

 Mammalia at Kirkdale (Buckland), Bize in the south of France (Marcel de 

 Serres), Avison, Salleles, Poudres near Sommieres, and Chokier near Liege 

 (Von Meyer). 



The bones of birds are of frequent occurrence in the osseous breccias which 

 fill the fissures of limestone on the coasts of the Mediterranean, but these are 

 probably referable in many cases to the recent epoch. They are recorded as 

 occurring at Gibraltar (Buckland), Cette, St. Antoin and Perpignan (Cuvier), 

 Nice (Risso), and Sardinia (Wagner, Nitzsch and Marmora). 



I may here mention the remarkable instances of birds which belong to the 

 existing epoch of the world, but have become extinct in recent times. The 

 first is the well-known case of the Dodo, a bird insulated alike in structure 

 and in locality, and which being unable to fly, and confined to one or two 

 small islands, was speedily exterminated by the thoughtless pioneers of civili- 

 zation. Most fortunately a head and foot of this bird still exist in the Ash- 

 molean, and another foot in the British Museum ; and with these data, aided 

 by the descriptions of the old navigators, we are in some degree informed as 

 to the structure and natural history of this anomalous creature. The memoirs 

 on the Dodo by Mr. Duncan in the ' Zoological Journal,' vol. iii., and by M. 

 De Blainville in the ' Nouvelles Annales du Museum d'Hist. Nat.,' vol. iv., are 

 highly interesting, and there is an admirable synopsis of the whole subject 

 from the pen of Mr. Broderip in the ' Penny Cyclopaedia,' article Dodo. 



The bird described by Leguat (Voyage to the East Indies, 1708,) as in- 

 habiting the island of Rodriguez so recently as 1691, and termed by him Le 



