FOKRTYeS-LOL—FOSSTL BIRDS 277 
Cinelus (Water-OUSEL), and Dr. Sharpe, as usual in similar cases 
of difficulty, has put it (Cat. - 
B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 312) among y 
the Timeliidx, making two 
other genera, Hydrocichla and 
Microcichla. These are adopted 
by Mr. Oates, who (Faun. Br. 
Ind. Birds, ii. p. 81) refers all 
to the Ruticilline group (RED- 
START) of Zurdidx. With but 
few exceptions their plumage 
is wholly black and white; 
and, save in Microcichla, the forked tail. which is constantly in 
motion is a marked characteristic. These birds are found along 
the whole of the Himalayan range and its eastward extensions to 
China in the north, and further south in the mountains of the 
Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. They form, says 
Mr. Elwes (Jbis, 1872, p. 251) “a conspicuous feature in Himalayan 
scenery, being usually found either singly or in pairs flitting from 
rock to rock by the side of the most rapid torrents.” They are 
said to build a large nest, placed under a stone or fallen ‘tree close 
to the water, and their eggs are of a dull greenish-white freckled 
with rusty brown. 
FORTY-SPOT, the name in Tasmania, to which the species is 
peculiar, of Pardalotus quadraginta (DIAMOND-BrrD). 
FOSSIL BIRDS.! Footprints or casts of footprints, at the time of 
their in pehpre) and long afterwards, supposed to be those of Birds, were 
in or be Shir c 
found #heet the year 1835 in the Triassic sandstone of the valley 
of the Connecticut in New England, and were described by Messrs. 
exter : 5 = 
Deane and, Marsh. Sabsequontty Prof. Hitchcock and Mr. Warren 
contributed to the elucidation of these tracks, which were ascribed 
to various genera of the Class that received the names of Amblonyz, 
Argozoum, Brontozoum, Grallator, Ornithopus, Platypterna, Tridentipes, 
and others. No portion of any of the animals to which these traces 
are due seems to have been met with,” and most American palee- 
ontologists are now inclined to attribute them rather to Dinosaurian 
Reptiles than to Birds. Whatever may be thought of the rest, it 
appears that the creatures designated as Platypterna and Tridentipes 
were certainly not ornithic. Brontozoum must have been a colossal 
Henicurvus. (After Swainson.) 
1 JT am obliged to my friend Mr. Lydekker for this article, which, though 
founded upon one that appeared in the Encyclopedia Britannica, has been by 
him so entirely remodelled, that he may be considered its sole author.—A. N. 
2 The only known bones from this deposit were exhibited by Prof. W. B. 
Rogers at the first meeting of the British Association in Bath (Rep. Br. Ass. . 
1864, Trans. Sect. p. 66). (Many other vemains trove this deposat nave been described by fof. Marsh) 
