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ORMSKIRK ORNITHYCHNOLOGY. 



direction of medical men. It appears from a 

 return made to the house of commons in 1839, 

 that out of 543 persons in England and Wales 

 who died from the effects of poison in 1837 and 

 1838, and on whom inquests were held, the fata- 

 lity was occasioned in 186 cases by opium or its 

 preparations ; and nearly one-seventh of the whole 

 number of cases (seventy-two) were young chil- 

 dren, most of them under one year, to fifty-two of 

 whom an overdose of opium, or laudanum, or some 

 cordial in which opium is used, had been given ; 

 and in twenty other cases the children had been 

 poisoned by taking such medicines in mistake. 



ORMSKIRK ; a town in the hundred of west 

 Derby, county of Lancaster, situated on the road 

 from Liverpool to Preston, 209 miles from Lon- 

 don, and thirteen N. from Liverpool. The trade 

 and manufactures of Ormskirk are on a limited 

 scale, the principal establishments being hat manu- 

 factories and roperies. Ormskirk is a station for 

 taking votes at the election of members for south 

 Lancashire. The gingerbread made in this town 

 is held in great estimation, and finds a ready sale 

 in the surrounding towns. The church, dedicated 

 to St Peter and St Paul, is very ancient. Popu- 

 lation in 1841, 4891. 



ORNITHYCHNOLOGY, (i ( ,, t , \x."'> a "d A- 

 yas,) signifying stony bird-tracts; a new and distinct 

 branch of Oryctology, hitherto unnoticed and un- 

 explored. In our article Organic Remains, we 

 were very brief on Fossil Birds, owing to the pau- 

 city of materials. Indeed, the almost entire 

 absence of birds from the organic remains found in 

 rocks, has been a matter of considerable surprise 

 to geologists. Up to the present time, there have 

 only been nine or ten species mentioned by Cuvier, 

 which he discovered in the tertiary gypsum beds 

 near Paris. He regards all the cases reported by 

 previous writers, as deserving little credit. 



Geologists have assigned probable reasons, 

 founded upon their structure, for these not being 

 met with in a fossil condition. They are less lia- 

 ble than quadrupeds to be submerged beneath the 

 waters, so as to be fossilized in aqueous deposits, 

 and even when they happen to die in the water, 

 they will float on the surface, and may therefore 

 be discovered and devoured by rapacious animals. 



Some unexpected disclosures of the foot-prints 

 of birds in fossiliferous rocks of the new red 

 sandstone formation, on the banks of the river 

 Connecticut, in Massachusetts, United States of 

 America, have thrown some light upon this curious 

 subject. These have been described by professor 

 Hitchcock of Amberst college. His attention was 

 first directed to this subject, by two slabs about 

 forty inches square, which were originally united 

 face to face; and on separation, presenting four 

 most distinct depressions on one of them, with 

 four correspondent projections on the other; pre- 

 cisely resembling the impressions of the feet of a 

 large bird in mud. So perfect are these impres- 

 sions, that among hundreds who have examined 

 the specimens, none have the least doubt of their 

 origin. These slabs were dug out of a quarry, in 

 the south-west part of Montague, not half a mile 

 from Connecticut river, and elevated about one 

 hundred feet above that stream. The strata dip 

 in an easterly direction, in an angle of only five 

 degrees ; and the layer containing the impressions 

 was several feet below the surface. Only one 

 kind 6f foot-print has been found there. 



At Deerfield, Horse Race, Mount Tom, and 



many other places, these foot prints are found in 

 the sandstone, some of them being small, and 

 others incredibly large. At the last locality men- 

 tioned, there are three varieties of the rock in 

 which these impressions occur: 1. A reddish fine 

 micaceous sandstone passing into shale ; 2. A gray 

 micaceous sandstone; 3. A very hard sandstone, 

 not being fissile and quite brittle, composed ot 

 clay and sand. This spot is more than thirty 

 miles from Horse Race. 



At the five quarries, these impressions are exhi- 

 bited on the rock in its place, as depressions more 

 or less perfect and deep, mnde by an animal with 

 two feet, and usually three toes. In some lew 

 instances, a fourth hind toe, or hallux, has made 

 an impression, not directly in rear, but inclining 

 somewhat inward, and in one instance all the four 

 toes point forward. Sometimes these ternate 

 depressions run into one another, as the toes ap- 

 proach the point of convergence, but they also 

 sometimes stop short at that point, as if the ani- 

 mal had not sunk deep enough to allow the heel 

 to make an impression. At that point the stone 

 is in some cases irregularly raised, as if the weight 

 of the animal had caused the sand or mud to crowd 

 upwards in rear of the step, and in a few cases, 

 also, behind this slight elevation, there is a de- 

 pression as if a knobbed heel had sunk slightly 

 into the yielding mass. 



In many instances, also, there is a remarkable 

 appendage to the hind part of the impression ; 

 radiating from it in rear, in the larger tracts, to 

 the distance of several inches, which has all the 

 appearance of the impression of stiff hair or bristles. 

 In all cases where there are three toes pointing 

 forward, the middle one is the longest ; sometimes 

 to a very considerable extent. In a majority of 

 cases, the toes gradually taper more or less to a 

 point; but in some most remarkable varieties, they 

 are thick and somewhat knobbed, and terminate 

 abruptly in most instances with claws. In the 

 narrow bed impressions, distinct impressions 

 of claws are not often seen, although they are 

 sometimes discoverable. But this depends much 

 upon the quality of the rock. If it be corn- 

 posed of fine clay, the claws are usually well 

 marked. If the rock is cleaved a little above, or 

 a little below the layer, on which the animal ori- 

 ginally made the impression, the claws will, in all 

 probability, not be visible. If a portion 

 of the rock containing these impressions 

 be carefully cloven, one face will present a 

 ternary depression; and the other face 

 will exhibit a corresponding figure, pro- 

 jecting more or less, sometimes in high 

 relief. The specimens in alto relievo, 

 often give a better idea of the structure 

 of the foot that made the impressions, 

 than those that are depressed. 1 hese 

 tracks are in regular succession in nnu- 

 merable instances, and have doubtless 

 been made by an animal in the act ot 

 walking, as exhibited in the annexed 

 figure of the O. Minimus. 



Many of the rocks exhibit the foot- 

 prints in an irregular mass, as if the bird 

 had been walking to and fro. In the con- 

 tinuous tracts the impressions are not in 

 a straight line, but the alternate impres- 

 sions of the right and left feet pointing out- 

 wards, and deviating as much from the 

 straight line as might be expected from 9 



