176 Scientific Intelligence—Geology. 
Those of the gypsum of the neighbourhood of Paris have been princi- 
pally studied by G. Cuvier. They consist of :— 
Three birds of prey belonging to the genera Halicvtus, Buteo, and 
Stria. 
A gallinaceous bird of the subgenus Coturnix, 
Three long-legged birds of the genera Ibis, Scolopaw and Pelidna. 
Likewise two palmipedes of the genus Pelicanus, 
Judging from the figures Cuvier gives of them, others are certainly 
passerine birds ; and his wading-bird allied to the Ibis, is an extinct spe- 
cies of Curlew, which may be named Numenius gypsorum. 
M. Duyal has found in the diluvium of the environs of Paris, near the 
barrier of Italy, a cubitus which I consider as belonging to a gallina- 
ceous bird of the genus Phasianus. It is from the same place where 
bones of the badger, elephant, hippopotamus, and marmot, &c. are ob- 
tained. 
MM. Constant Prevost, and Desnoyers, have procured in a deposit 
observed by them at Montmorency, and which has afforded them re- 
mains of Spermophilus, Cricetus, and Lagomys, some bones of birds 
which they regard as approaching to those of the common water-rail, 
In Auvergne, the most curious ornitholites hitherto discovered are those 
of a wader of the genus Phonicopterus, which it has been hitherto impos- 
sible to distinguish from the Flamingo still living in the south of Europe, 
and which ornithologists name P. ruber. And yet these bones are mingled 
with those of the rhinoceros, hyenodon, and other extinct species of the 
mammifera, 
M. Jourdan, professor in the faculty of Lyons, has collected, among 
other ornitholites of Auvergne communicated to me, a portion of a pel- 
vis, also from the tertiary formations, and which indicates a bird very 
nearly connected with Mergus, if it does not really belong to that genus. 
The fragment of a tarsus, from the collection of M. Bravard, comes from 
Arde, likewise in Auvergne ; it belongs to a spurred gallinaceous bird, 
highly develeped, is pretty likethat of the domestic cock, but appearing to 
come from a different species. An entire tarsus from the same collection 
has been found at Coude; it appears to me to belong to a kind of per- 
dix or a small tetrao. As with the first mentioned tarsus, it belongs to 
a less ancient period than the Flamingo. In the work I am about to 
publish, I point out many other ornitholites of Auvergne, and in like 
manner, indicate those which have been collected in various other parts 
of France. Some of these are diluvial, and others the species of which 
can be determined as having their living representatives in the existing 
Fauna; such are Corrus pica, Perdix cinerea, Perdix coturnix, Anas 
olor, Anas anser. A portion of my work is devoted to the tertiary or 
diluvian ornitholites found in other countries of Europe ; they are prin- 
cipally from England, Belgium, Germany, and Sardinia. 
The remains of fossil birds which have been collected in countries 
foreign to Europe, are still more curious, and I may mention the princi- 
pal facts in their history. 
The Gryphus antiquitatis, Schubert, is from Behring Straits, It 
belongs to the family of vultures, 
It is likewise to the vultures, and the gallino-gralli of the genus 
Kamichi, that we must refer the Dodo (Didus ineptus), the race of which 
has been destroyed in the Isle of France for about two centuries, and 
