British Fossil Birds. 405 



which it belonged as Proherodius oweni. Quite recently the 

 writer has had submitted to his notice the almost entire 

 right tarso-metatarsus of a bird obtained from the London 

 Clay near St. James's Park by Mr. W. J. S. Abbott, of 

 3 St. Peter's Road, Tufnell Park, N.W., which there is every 

 reason to believe is referable to Proherodius. This bone, 

 which agrees in relative size with the typical sternum, has 

 unfortunately lost the middle and outer trochlese from the 

 distal extremity, although sufficient of their points of attach- 

 ment remains to indicate their general proportions and rela- 

 tions. Now the general characters of this specimen are so 

 essentially those of the modern Herons that the presumption 

 is so strong as to amount almost to a certainty that it 

 belonged to the bird primarily indicated by the sternum. 

 In certain minor points, however, such as the inequality in 

 the length of its three distal trochlese, and the slight deve- 

 lopment of its proximal talon (in which there is no closed 

 tube for the passage of tendons), this bone differs from the 

 tarso-metatarsus of all existing Ardeidce, and thus clearly 

 shows that its owner belonged to a distinct family. The 

 characters in which it differs from the Ardeidce seem, how- 

 ever, to be generalized ones — this being certainly the case 

 with the simple talon, and probably also with the inequality 

 in the length of the trochleae ; and we may therefore fairly 

 presume that we have in Proherodius the ancestral gene- 

 ralized type of the modern Herons. 



Gavice. — The last of the Carinate birds from the London 

 Clay to which a separate name has been assigned is typically 

 known by the hinder part of a cranium from Sheppey, which 

 has long been in the British Museum, and was figured in 

 1838 by the late Mr. Konig under the name of Larus tolia- 

 picus. In redescribing the specimen in his ' British Fossil 

 Mammals and Birds,' Sir R. Owen came, however, to the 

 conclusion that the owner of this skull had no sort of affinity 

 to the Gavise, but was more nearly allied to the Kingfishers, 

 and the new generic name Halcyornis was accordingly 

 suggested. Now, although there is no question as to the 

 generic distinctness of Halcyornis from Larus and its modern 



