British Fossil Birds. 383 



In the present survey of our knowledge of British Fossil 

 Birds it will be convenient to take them in their geological 

 sequence, commencing with the superficial deposits, and 

 ending with the Cambridge Greensand— the lowest English 

 horizon from which bird-remains have yet been obtained. 

 References to genera and species hitherto described will be 

 found in Woodward and Sherborn^s ' Catalogue of British 

 Fossil Vertebra ta/ and in the writer's ' Catalogue of Fossil 

 Birds in the British Museum/ 



I. Birds of the Superficial Deposits. 



Under this heading we may include all the fossiliferous 

 deposits down to the Norwich Crag, which is of uppermost 

 Pliocene age ; the so-called Forest-bed, which some autho- 

 rities refer to the Pleistocene, and others to the Pliocene, 

 being included in the present section. The deposits thus 

 included comprise the fens of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, 

 &c., some portions of which probably belong to the historic 

 period, while the lower beds are doubtless prehistoric, and still 

 older ones of Pleistocene age. The turbaries of Waltham- 

 stow, Essex, which have furnished remains of Red Deer and 

 other Mammals not now found in that district, apparently 

 indicate a horizon not far removed from that of some portion 

 of the fen-deposits. Then, again, we have the numerous 

 cavern-deposits, where bird-remains are found in association 

 with those of the Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, and Cave- 

 Hyaena ; also the brickrearths of the Thames Valley at Grays, 

 Ilford, and elsewhere, where the same Mammals also occur. 

 At various places on the coast of Norfolk, such as Palling 

 and Mundesley, there occur superficial deposits yielding 

 bird-remains, some of which should probably be referred to 

 the recent, and others to the upper part of the Pleistocene 

 period ; the above-mentioned Forest-bed being on a lower 

 horizon. 



So far as can be determined, with one exception, all the 

 remains of birds obtained from the deposits mentioned above 

 appear to be referable to existing species. When, however, 

 we bear in mind the slight differences between the bones of 



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