FOSSIL BIRDS 281 
Graculavus, Palxotringa, Telmatornis, Hesperornis, and Ichthyornis. 
The last two—occurring in the Cretaceous Shales of Kansas—are 
placed by him in a distinct “Subclass” of Birds, ODONTORNITHES.} 
The affinities of the others can scarcely yet be determined. Baptornis 
seems to be allied to Enaliornis ; Graculavus in the first notice was 
referred to the STEGANOPODES; and Palzotringa and Telmatornis 
respectively to the LimicoL@ and fallidz ; it is, however, highly 
probable that all were toothed. Laornis, from the Cretaceous Marls 
of New Jersey, was as large as a Swan. 
The Lower Eocene furnishes still more Ornitholites. First in 
point of size are those of Gastornis, found by M. Gaston Planté and 
soon after by M. Herbert in a conglomerate below the Plastic Clay 
(Woolwich beds) of Bas-Meudon. It has lately been recognized by 
Dr. V. Lemoine in beds of nearly the same age at Rheims, and by 
Mr. E. T. Newton in England near Croydon (Trans. Zool. Soc. xii. 
p- 143). Much difference of opinion has obtained as to the affinities 
of this bird, which was far larger than an Ostrich, but it was 
certainly incapable of flight, and was probably one of the Latitx. 
The owner of an imperfect cranium from the London Clay, for 
which Sir R. Owen (Z7ans. Zool. Soc. vii. p. 145) proposed the 
name Dasornis, as well as Prof. Cope’s Diatryma (Proc. Ac. N. 8. 
Philad. 1876, p. 11) seem to have been other members of the same 
group. LPhororhacos and Brontornis, giant-birds,? from the Lower 
Tertiary of South America should also be named here. The 
London Clay of Sheppey has likewise supplied some long but 
broken humeri, described by Sir R. Owen (Q. Journ. Geol. Soc. 
xxxly. p. 129) as Argillornis, whose nearest affinities seem to lie 
with the Steganopodes, and not, as had been supposed, with the 
Diomedeidx (ALBATROS), especially if a skull from the same deposits 
be rightly referred. To the same bird belong, apparently, remains 
described under the preoccupied names of Lithornis and Megalornis ; 
and from the same locality the zoologist last-named has also added 
(op. cit. xxix. p. 511) a yet more remarkable bird in the Odontopteryx 
toliapica, the edges of whose jaws were serrated like those of 
certain Tortoises, but the general character was Steganopodous, 
with a similar division of the horny sheath of the mandible into 
several pieces. A small skull, also from Sheppey, was described by 
him as Halcyornis, and regarded as allied to the KINGFISHER, but it 
seems more nearly related to the GULLS, further evidence to this 
effect being afforded by an undoubtedly Larine humerus probably 
belonging to the genus described. The equivalent beds at High- 
gate have supplied the sternum of a Heron-like bird, for which 
the name Proherodius has been suggested by the writer; a tarso- 
1 Am. Journ. Sci. ser. 3, x. p. 403. 
2 See Mercerat and Moreno, An. Mus. La Plata, i. (1891), and Ameghino, 
Revist. Argent. Hist. Nat. i. pp. 441-453. 
