556 GRALLATORES. 
AVES. GRALLATORES. 
Fig. 236. 
Sternum of a Small Wader, London clay, Primrose Hill. Nat. size. 
SMALL WADING BIRD. 
A smaui species of the Grallatorial Order is indicated 
by the slightly decussating coracoid grooves, ¢ ¢, fig. 236, 
at the fore part of the fossil sternum above figured. This 
peculiarity may be seen in the sternum of the existing species 
of the Heron family, (Ardcida,) and thus assists in the 
determination of the present fossil, in the absence of the 
characters which the posterior margin of the sternum would 
have afforded if entire. 
The fossil was obtained by N. 'T. Wetherell, Esq., of 
Highgate, from the London clay near Primrose Hill, 
during the excavation of the tunnel of the London and Bir- 
mingham Railway ; and was obligingly transmitted to me 
by that gentleman for the illustration of the present work. 
The existence of fossil remains of Birds in the eocene 
gypsum of Montmartre, has long been know. Lamanon 
appears to have described the first in 1782 ;* and Camper 
made mention of a second, in a Paper on Fossils, printed 
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1786. The stimulus 
* ¢ Journal de Physique,’ t. xix, p. 175. 
