British Fossil Birds. 407 



the Gulls which may now be seen around the Sheppey cliffs 

 was taken by Haley ornis ; and Proherodius, the remains of 

 which have hitherto been found further inland^ probably 

 filled the role of the modern Herons in the surrounding 

 swamps and marshes. 



Ratitce. — Many years ago certain limb-bones of an enor- 

 mous bird were discovered at Meudon^ in France, in Tertiary 

 strata somewhat lower than the London Clay, For this giant 

 bird the name Gastornis (a term, by the way, which ought in 

 strictness to be discarded on account of its barbarism, being 

 compounded from the French Christian name " Gaston ^' 

 and the Greek '' ornis ") was proposed. Other remains of 

 the same genus were subsequently discovered in beds of 

 nearly similar age at Eheims ; while the right of the genus 

 to occupy a place in the British fauna rests on the evidence 

 of several imperfect limb-bones found a few years ago by 

 Mr. H. M. Klaassen in the Woolwich and Reading beds of 

 Park Hill, near Croydon. The latter specimens were de- 

 scribed by Mr. E. T. Newton in the ' Trans. Zool. Soc' vol. 

 xii. (1886), and were considered to indicate a new species, 

 for which the name G. klaasseni was suggested. The Wool- 

 wich and Reading beds, it may be observed, lie below the 

 horizon of the London Clay, from which they are separated 

 by the intervening Oldhaven and Blackheath beds ; and they 

 are therefore not far separated in time from the beds which 

 yielded the typical species of Gastornis. 



The various species of Gastornis indicate birds of the 

 approximate dimensions of some of the larger species of the 

 New Zealand Dinornithidce. They are characterized by the 

 comparatively long and slender tarso-metatarsus, and also by 

 the marked inflection of the distal extremity of the tibia, which 

 has a bony bridge crossing the extensor groove of the anterior 

 surface. 



Much discussion has arisen as to the affinities of these huge 

 Eocene birds : the general consensus of opinion inclining to 

 the view propounded by M. Milne-Edwards, that they were more 

 or less closely allied to the Anseres. This opinion appears 

 to have been mainly based on the inflection of the lower end 



