GASTORNITIIES. 



55 



uliilc numerous bones, and fragments of bones, of the latter, have been preserved. 

 Both were found in lower tertiary deposits jiear Reims, and from the same geological 

 horizon as the ty])ical species, and in 1883 L. Dollo announced a tliigli-bone from 

 the same formation in the neighborhood ta" 

 of Mons, Eelgium. Upon these fossils is 

 based the restoration represented in the 

 aecomi)aiiying cut, in which the shaded 

 portions indicate the parts which have 

 been found. The most unique and re- 

 markable character of the bird is said to 

 be the distinctness in the adult bird of the 

 sutures between the different bones of the 

 skull, since in all other known birds these 

 bones are anchylosed, and the sutures ob- 

 literated. This feature alone justifies the 

 view that Gastornis is a peculiar typo of 

 at least ordinal rank, which accordingly has 

 been attributed to it here. On the other 

 hand, we cannot assign it a place very re- 

 mote from the dromoeognathous birds, with 

 which the ])elvic remains and the anterior 

 extremities seem to indicate relationshij). 

 It may be that here is a rejirescntativc of 

 the ancestral stock from which flamingos, 

 screamers, and ducks have sprung, or rather 

 a form which takes the same position to the 

 latter forms as do the Crypturi to the Galli- 

 naceous birds. The true position of this type 

 is inii)ossible to make out at present, how- 

 ever, and it has therefore been placed at the 

 end of the series called Dromanignatha;. 



Before closing the chapter of the Dromajognathous birds we may mention a few 

 fossil remains which seem to belong to this group, the greater abundance of which dur- 

 ing former geological periods is evident. 



Professor Brandt has described a girantic esjcr found in an old watercouree on tiie 

 steppes of southern Russia. It liad a capacity of about forty-two hens' eggs, and 

 showed distinct struthious characters. lie called the supposed bird StruthioUthus 

 chersonensis. It may have been related to Gastornis. 



The IHatrtjma (/if/aiiteum, from the eocene of New 3Iexico, was described by 

 Professor Co))e from a tarsus-metatarsus discovered by himself. " The characters of 

 its proximal extremity resemble in many points those of the order Cursores (repre- 

 sented by the Struthionidc-e and Dinornis), while those of the distal end are, in the 

 middle and inner trochlea?, like those of the Gastornis of the Paris l)asin. Its size 

 indicates a species with feet twice the bulk of those of the ostrich." The discovery 

 introduces this group of birds to the known faunas of Xorth America recent .ind 

 extinct, and demonstrates that this continent has not been destitute of the gigantic 

 forms of birds heretofore chiefly found in the faunas of the southern hcmispheri'. 



Leonii.vku Stf-jxegeu. 



Fig. 24.— Gastornis cdwanlsii, as restored by L. Dollo. 



