A, FE. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands; Geology. 195 
b. Fossils Birds and Reptiles of the Paget Formation. 
Up to the present time we have very little precise knowledge of 
the vertebrate fossils that have, from time to time, been found in 
these deposits. 
The most important of these are probably the bones of birds. 
Several fossil bones of birds kept in the collection in the public build- 
ing at Hamilton were seen by the writer, but they were too few and 
imperfect for identification, unless by long and careful comparisons 
with the skeletons to be found only in large museums. Other col- 
lections of birds’ bones have been made, but not yet identified. 
Several fossil birds’ eggs have also been found, some of them quite 
recently, but they cannot be identified with certainty. Those that it 
have seen are about the size and shape of those of the tropic bird. 
Lieut. Nelson in 1840 mentioned the discovery of the bones and eggs 
of birds as follows : 
“Returning to the cavern at the North Bastion (fig. 8). In the 
heap of red earth, which in this instance only had rather an unc- 
tuous feel, mixed with the large Helix [ P. Nelsoni|, were found quan - 
tities of birds’ bones. From the best accounts, the caves at Ireland 
were frequented until lately by a sea bird, whose local name, derived 
from its peculiar cry, is Pim-li-co.* In hazy weather, or at night, 
this sound was always a warning for vessels from the West Indies to 
put about, and avoid the perilous southwest bar and reefs; but since 
the establishment of the dockyard at Ireland, these birds have 
almost left the Bermudas. 
Whilst excavating a ditch near the cavern }, shown in fig. 5, p. 108, 
a small hole was discovered in a rather hard rock, composed of com - 
minuted fragments, with the interstices not filled up; it was about 
twenty feet above the sea, thirty yards from it, and fifteen feet from 
the top of the hill, but without any apparent connection with the 
surface. In this hole were found an eggshell and many fragments 
of bones, similar to the preceding, but they were all, as well as the 
egg, coated with carbonate of lime. 
Ireland however is by no means the exclusive mine for these fossils. 
Bones, apparently those of birds, have been found in the limestone 
on the coast of Harrington Sound by Mr. Hill, to whom I am 
indebted for the information. He obtained specimens fifty feet from 
the water, twenty feet above it, and four feet under the surface. 
* This is the Shearwater, Puffinus cinereus or Anduboni, which still breeds 
sparingly in Bermuda, 
