558 GRALLATORES. 
newer pliocene period, which so abound in mammalian 
fossils. ‘The light bodies of birds float long on the sur- 
face after death ; and for one bird that becomes imbedded 
in the sediment at the bottom, perhaps ninety-nine are 
devoured before decomposition has sufficiently advanced to 
allow the skeleton to sink. Dr. Buckland has figured 
the fossil humerus of a bird, as large as that of a Wild 
Goose, from the diluvial clay of Lawford.* But most of 
the British ornitholites of this geological period have been 
discovered in ossiferous caverns. Dr. Buckland enume- 
rates the following from the Cave at Kirkdale.- ‘* Raven, 
Pigeon, Lark, a small species of Duck, resembling the 
‘Summer Duck, and a bird not ascertained, being about 
the size of a Thrush.” The fossils sanction a reference 
to the genera Corvus, Columba, &c., but not a closer de- 
termination. The pigeon is represented by a left ulna, 
and was of a species larger than our wild or domestic 
kinds. The humerus of a Small Wader has likewise been 
found. Similar ornitholites have been discovered in the 
cave at Kent’s Hole, and in that at Berry Head, near Tor- 
bay. From the latter locality I have recognised the follow- 
ing remains :—the scapula, humerus, ulna, and proximal end 
of the metacarpus of a Falcon, rather larger than the /alco 
peregrinus. ‘The remains of birds become more common in 
the fen and turbary deposits, and more easily referable to 
existing species ; but I have restricted myself in the present 
work to the description of those which are actually fossil. 
* © Reliquie Diluviane,’ p. 27, pl. 13. figs. 9 and 10. 
+ © Reliquize Diluviane,’ p. 15. 
