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Diatryma is to be regarded as a primitive Carinate form most nearly re- 
lated to Cariama among existing birds, although it was probably only an 
early offshoot from the line of which Cariama is the sole survivor, and not 
intimately related to it. It had an enormous skull measuring seventeen 
inches in length consisting mainly of a hugh compressed beak.’ In this 
character it resembles the extinct Phororhachos of the South American 
Miocene but there the resemblance apparently stops. 
Fossil birds as we know are extremely rare and the authors regard the 
discovery of the skeleton of Diatryma as a fifth landmark in the history of 
fossil ornithology, the earlier ones being the discoveries respectively of 
Archeopteryx, of the Jurassic; the Toothed Birds of the Cretaceous — 
Hesperornis and Ichthyornis; the Moas of New Zealand; and Phororhachos 
of the South American Miocene. Dviatryma lived during the Lower 
Eocene near the beginning of the Age of Mammals and was a contemporary 
of the Four-toed Horse, Hohippus. 
The corresponding bones of the complete skeleton seem to differ from 
those described by Cope as Diatryma gigantea as well as from Mr. Granger’s 
specimens named D. ajax by Dr. Shufeldt, so it is described as a dis- 
tinct species, D. steini, in honor of the discoverer. In their conclud- 
ing pages the authors make some very pertinent remarks regarding fossil 
birds. They commend the revision of the fossil birds of North America 
and the figuring of the types, but call attention to the provisional nature 
of all the identifications, and the fragmentary and inadequate character 
of the material. ‘‘ The identifications should not be changed but they 
should always be understood as comparisons and not as positive refer- 
ences.” ‘They afford no ground for concluding that the antiquity of 
modern groups of birds is greater than that of modern groups of mam- 
mals. Nor, on the other hand, does it appear that they were notably less 
ancient.’””-— W.S. 
Dabbene on New Species of Geositta and Cinclodes.'— In this 
paper Mr. Dabbene states that his researches have enabled him to recog- 
nize no less than 30 species of these two genera of which seventeen are 
residents of Argentina. The following are described as new: Geositta 
punensis (p. 54), La Guiaca, Province of Jujuy; G. rufipennis Burmeistert 
(p. 55), El Voleon, Province of Jujuy; Cinclodes Oustaleti hornensis (p. 58), 
and C. antarcticus maculirostris (p. 59), Isla Hermite, Cape Horn.— W. S. 
Chapman on Santo Domingo Birds.?— In spite of the many explora- 
tions in Santo Domingo the avifauna, even at this late date, does not seem 
1 Especies y Subspecies Aparentemente Nuevas de Geositta y Cinclodes de la Republica 
Argentina y del Sur de Chile. Por Roberto Dabbene. Physis III, pp. 52-59. March 17, 
1917. ; 
2 Descriptions of New Birds from Santo Domingo and Remarks on Others in the Brewster- 
Sanford Collection. By Frank M.Chapman. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XX XVII, 
Art. XII, pp. 327-334. May 14, 1917. 
