British Fossil Birds. 399 



of the Royal College of Surgeons. This specimen, \\'hich 

 was described and figured in Owen's ' British Fossil Mammals 

 and Birds/ under the name of Lithornis vulturinus, comprises 

 the mutilated sternum, coracoids, a vertebra, portions of the 

 femur and tibia, and some other imperfect bones. Relying 

 chiefly on the characters of the sternum, which must have 

 belonged to a bird with this part of the skeleton either 

 entire or having only shallow notches on its distal border. 

 Sir R. Owen came to the conclusion that the specimen indi- 

 cated a small Accipitrine bird more nearly allied to the 

 American Cathartidce than to any other existing type. It 

 indicates a bird of the approximate size of the Peregrine 

 Falcon {Falco peregrinus) ; but the shaft of the coracoid is 

 proportionately much narrower, and the femur smaller and 

 weaker than in any living Accipitrine genus. The present 

 writer cannot find any especial approximation to these pecu- 

 liarities in the skeleton of the Cathartidce, the Sparrow-Hawk 

 coming nearer in the former, and the Kites {Circus) in the 

 latter respect. As tending to confirm the conclusion that 

 Lithornis is truly an Accipitrine, important evidence is 

 afforded by a pelvis and sacrum from Sheppey presented to 

 the British Museum by Mr. W. H. Shrubsole. This speci- 

 men, which agrees in relative size with the typical sternum, 

 shows the marked deflection of the dorsal aspect of the hinder 

 part of the ilia, which is such a marked peculiarity of the 

 Accipitres, and is found in no other living birds. The 

 British Museum also possesses an imperfect sternum, asso- 

 ciated with some other broken bones, which appears referable 

 to this species. 



So far, therefore, as the available evidence goes, it points 

 to the conclusion that Lithornis is the earliest known repre- 

 sentative of the Accipitres, although it is probable that it 

 cannot be included in any of the existing families. It is, 

 however, much to be wished that we could obtain a specimen 

 of the tarso-metatarsus, which would set the question at rest ; 

 and it is only fair to observe that if, as appears to be the 

 case, Lithornis was comparatively common in the old Sheppey 

 area, this circumstance is somewhat against its Accipitrine 



2e2 



