FOSSIL BIRDS. 557 
which Cuvier gave to the collection of the fossils of this 
noted locality, brought to light so many examples of eocene 
ornitholites that they form the subject of a special chapter 
Af 
WwW 
in the ‘ Ossemens Fossiles,’ and have been referred, or 
rather approximated, to the genera Halietus, Buteo, and 
Strix, in the Order Accipitres; to the genus Cotwrnix in 
Gallinacea ; to the genera Ibis, Scolopax, and Pelidna, 
in Grallatores, and to the genus Pelecanus amongst the 
Palmipedes. Mr. J. W. Flower possesses some small Orni- 
tholites from the fresh-water eocene deposits at Hordwell, 
Hants, including a tarso-metatarsal of a Bird, closely 
resembling that figured in Cuvier’s ‘Ossemens Fossiles,’ 
t. il. pl. 72, fig. 2; which is the most common kind in 
the fresh-water eocene at Montmartre. In one of the last- 
discovered fossil birds of Montmartre, noticed by Cuvier, the 
trachea or windpipe, and the little sclerotic bony plates of 
the eye-ball, were preserved. Fossil eggs of birds have 
been found in the fresh-water tertiary deposits of Cournon 
in Auvergne, and fossil feathers in the calcareous beds of 
Montebolea. 
M. Escher of Zurich has obtained from the neocomian 
schists or lower greensand of the Canton of the Glaris, an 
ornitholite, which, from the characters of the bones of 
the wings and feet, M. v. Meyer has referred to the Pas- 
serine Order: this ancient bird was about the size of a 
Lark. 
With regard to the pliocene ornitholites of Britain, I 
have recognized the humerus of a bird of flight, about 
the size of a Barn-Owl, which was discovered in the same 
bed of Norwich crag that has yielded remains of the 
Mastodon: the specimen is now in the collection of Mr. 
Fitch of Norwich. Extremely rare are the remains of 
birds in the fresh-water deposits or marine drift of the 
* dto, tom. iii. p. 302, pl. 72, 75. 
