452 Miscellaneous. 



the torrid zone ; but I have collected hones undoubtedly belonging 

 to a Trogon in the deposits of Saint-Cierand-le-Puy, These birds 

 usually live in well-wooded places, wliere they feed on insects ; thus 

 the presence of Trojon r/aJlici(s in the liourbonnais tends to prove the 

 existence of considerable forests in the vicinity of the lakes of this 

 part of France. 



The Gangas or Sandgrouse live at present in Africa and in the 

 warmer regions of Asia : they are only birds of passage in the south 

 of Europe : but they are represented in the ancient fauna of the 

 AUier by a peculiar species, to M-hieh I have given the name of 

 Pterocles sfjjiiltiis. 



The Salanganes (which have been confounded with the Swallows 

 by most ornithologists, but which really difter therefrom greatly in 

 their mode of organization, and belong to the family of tlie Swifts or 

 Cypselida?) now inhabit only India, Cochin China, some of the Poly- 

 nesian islands, and the Mascarene islands. One species of this 

 group, very nearly allied to the existing species, has left its remains 

 in the tertiary strata of the Bourbonnais. 



A large bird of the stork family seems to represent, in this region, 

 the Marabous, wliich now-a-days occur from the Senegal to Cochin 

 China. 



The discovery of a secretarj^-bii'd in the midst of this ancient 

 population seems to me very interesting. Serpentarhn or Gupo- 

 gemmis reptlUvorus, which occurs in Africa, from Abyssinia to the 

 neighbourhood of the Cape of (lood Hope, is at present the solo 

 representative of a peculiar family of predaccous birds organized for 

 running rather than for flying. Xow, as I have shown ^nth regard 

 to the flamingoes, the zoological groups which, at the present day, 

 are represented only by a single species, or by a verj* small number 

 of species, probably at an ancient period possessed a numerical im- 

 portance not inferior to that of the other equivalent natural groups. 

 The existence of a second member of the family Serpentariida: in the 

 miocene epoch therefore seems to me to be an important zoological 

 ftict ; and the presence of these large birds of prey in France and in 

 Africa at different periods constitutes a new feature of resemblance 

 between the miocene fauna of the Bourbonnais and the existing 

 fauna of the African continent. I have as yet found only a single 

 bone of the foot of this fossil secretary-bird ; but the organic cha- 

 racters of this part of the skcletou are so distinct that there can be 

 no uncertainty as to the determination of the type to which the bird 

 from which this fragment was derived belonged. 



In my first work on fossil birds, submitted to the Academy in 

 1S65, I showed that at tlie miocene epoch flamingoes, ibises, and 

 pelicans inhabited the shores of the lakes of the Bourbonnais ; but it 

 was necessary, to be ver}- reserved as to the conclusions which might 

 be dra^^•n froni these facts with regard to the general character of the 

 ornithological population. Tlie fresh discoveries wliich I have just 

 made known fully confirm the conjectures wliich I had formed upon 

 this subject, and lead mc to tliink that, at the period when the lower 

 miocene beds of the Allier were deposited, the biological conditions 



