British Fossil Birds. 393 



the Ptarmigan. The former occurrence of this species, 

 coupled with the probable contemporaneous existence of the 

 Eider Duck in Ireland, points to its Pleistocene avian fauna 

 having been of a more northerly type than it is at the pre- 

 sent day, — an inference supported by the occurrence of the 

 Reindeer and the Mammoth in the Irish cavern-deposits. 

 As I'egards the Phasianida, remains of the Partridge {Perdioo 

 cinerea) have been obtained from Kirkdale cave. 



Fulicarice. — The only species of this group occurring in 

 British deposits is the Common Coot {Fulica atra), remains 

 of which were recorded by M. Milne-Edwards from the fens 

 of Cambridgeshire, while the writer has recently recognized a 

 tibia among a series of bones from the Ballynamintra cave, 

 Co. Waterford, preserved in the Dublin Museum. Although 

 the leg-bones of the Fulicarise are generally more like 

 those of the Gallinse than any other group, there is a tendency 

 to an inflection of the lower end of the tibia, which attains 

 its maximum in Fulica, but, as already observed, the tibia of 

 this genus may be readily distinguished from that of the 

 Ducks by its greater relative length and slenderness. 



Alectorides. — According to Yarrell, the recorded instances 

 of the occurrence of the Crane {Grus cinerea) in Ireland are 

 pnly four in number, but from the discovery of its remains 

 in the '^ kitchen-middens " of Ballycotton, Co. Cork, we must 

 consider that it was formerly indigenous in that country, 

 as it certainly was in the English fens. 



LimicolcB. — The humerus of the Limicolse diflfers from the * 

 corresponding bone of all the groups hitherto considered in 

 the presence of a distinct ectepicondylar process projecting 

 from the outer border of the lower end immediately above the 

 radial condyle. It is suggested by Dr. Buckland that a small 

 humerus of this type from Kirkdale cave belongs to the 

 Snipe {Scolopax ffallinaffo), a reference which may very pro- 

 bably be correct. 



Pygopodes. — The Alcida are distinguished from the other 

 members of this group by the comparative length of the femur, 

 by the absence of a long ankylosed spine-like patella to the 

 tibia, and by the comparative shortness and stoutness of the 



