384 Mr. R. Lydekker on 



many existing species of birds, and also recollect that many 

 of the Mammals of the Pleistocene period are extinct, the 

 suggestion arises that if these fossil birds were before us in 

 their flesh and feathers some of them would present dif- 

 ferences from their living representatives which might entitle 

 them to rank as distinct species. Still, however probable 

 this idea may be, our only course is to take the evidence as 

 it is presented to us ; and this is to the effect that no dif- 

 ferences of specific value can be detected between the bones 

 of the British Pleistocene birds and those of the present 

 day. 



In treating of the birds of the superficial deposits (and 

 likewise when we come to those of the older horizons) it will 

 be convenient to consider them in natural sequence under 

 their respective groups. 



Passeres. — The list of fossil Passerines is very short, and 

 presents nothing interesting from a distributional point of 

 view. An ulna of a small bird from the celebrated cave of 

 Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, figured in Buckland's ' Reliquiee 

 Diluvianse,^ has been referred to the Lark [Alauda arvensis) ; 

 but it may be questioned whether such a specimen is suf- 

 ficient to admit of the determination of the genus and species, 

 and, in any case, there is no definite information as to the 

 horizon from which it was obtained. From a cave at 

 Knockninny, in Ireland, the Rev. Professor Haughton re- 

 cords a skull of the Starling {Sturnus vulgaris). The three 

 remaining species all belong to the Corvidce. Of these, 

 several bones of the Raven {Corvus corax) have been ob- 

 tained from a cave at Shan don, near Dungarvan, Co. Water- 

 ford, Ireland ; but whether they came from the same horizon 

 as the one yielding teeth and bones of the Mammoth does 

 not appear certain. An ulna of the same species from Kirk- 

 dale cave is figured by Buckland in the work already cited ; 

 while a femur referred to the same bird has been mentioned 

 by Mr. J. A. Smith as having been obtained from superficial 

 deposits in Linlithgowshire. The bones of the Raven, it 

 may be observed, are easily distinguished from those of all 

 other Passerines by their superior size ; but agree with those 



