LITHORNIS VULTURINUS. 549 
AVES. VULTURID. ? 
Sternum, &c. of Lithornis, cocene clay, Sheppey. Nat. size. 
LITHORNIS VULTURINUS. The Vulture-like 
Lithornis. 
Lithornis® vulturinus, Owen, Geological Transactions, Second series, vol. vi. 
p. 206, pl. xxi. figs. 5 and 6. 
Catalogue of Fossil Mammalia, and Birds, Mu- 
” ” ” 
seum of the College of Surgeons, 4to, 1845, p. 337. 
Tue most conclusive evidence of the existence of Birds 
at the period of the formation of the English eocene ter- 
tiary strata, is afforded by the two remarkable ornitho- 
lites first described in the above-cited volume of the 
‘ Transactions of the Geological Society of London,’ these 
fossils, including the sternum and the sacrum, two of the 
most characteristic parts of skeleton of a bird, — both 
also having been obtained from the London clay at Shep- 
pey. The first of these fossils (fig. 232) forms part of the 
extensive series of organic remains, which John Hunter had 
* Aiéos, stone, oevs, bird, 
