On Fossil Remains of Carinate Birds. 343 



one species also of Terns. They were neither of them 

 common, and I did not succeed in obtaining specimens. 



~J-^9. PODICIPES DOMINICUS. 



(Cory, op. cit. p. 185.) 



In July, while shooting in the Yuna swamp, I several times 

 obtained a good view of this little Grebe. It was very 

 shy, and always dived or swam into the rushes on the first 

 appearance of the boat. 



XXVI. — On some Fossil Remains of Carinate Birds from 

 Central Madar/ascar. By Chas. W. Andrews, B.Sc, 

 F.Z.S., Assistant in the British Museum (Natural History). 



(Plates yill. & IX.) 



During his recent visit to Madagascar, Dr. Forsyth Major 

 spent several months at Sirabe, in the centre of the island, 

 a district well known for the abundance of fossil bones to be 

 obtained there. A large number of excavations, most of 

 them of considerable depth (12-15 ft.), were made, and a very 

 fine collection of the remains of the extinct species of Hippo- 

 potamus and other mammals, of several species of jEpyornis, 

 and also of numerous carinate birds was made. The present 

 paper deals only with the last, which are mostly aquatic birds, 

 though bones of a Kail and a Hawk also occur. By far the 

 greater number of specimens were obtained from a depth of 

 from twelve to fifteen feet in a marly layer, which Dr. JNIajor 

 believes to have been deposited on the bed of an old lake. 

 Above this comes a layer of coarse gravelly character, con- 

 solidated with carbonate of lime and containing rolled and 

 broken bones ; this probably marks a volcanic outburst, 

 accompanied by the breaking forth of numerous hot springs 

 charged with carbonate of lime. Above this deposit there is 

 another, about five or six feet in thickness, of black earth, 

 in which also bird-bones occur, though comparatively rare. 



In the marly layer the carinate remains are found in asso- 

 ciation with those of a rather small species of ^Fpijornis, the 



