238 RELIQULE AQTJITANTCJE. 



SYNDACTYLI. 



35. THE KINGFISHER. Alcedo ispida, Linn6. Le Martin-pecheur. 



The Station of Le Moustier, from which we have already received bones of 

 several species of small size, has furnished also a perfectly characterized humerus 

 and coracoid of the Kingfisher. This species is still met with on the banks of 

 the Ve'zere. 



COLUMB^E. 



36. THE STOCKDOVE. Columba lima, Brisson. Le Biset. 



This Bird, which is rightly considered the stem of all our races of domestic 

 Pigeons, lives in the wild state, like the Ringdove and the Dove, in almost every 

 part of Europe, from Sweden and Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 nesting in the most solitary and inaccessible places. Remains of this species, 

 consisting of a humerus and a portion of an ulna, have been found in one of our 

 most ancient prehistoric Stations, that of Aurignac. These bones, compared with 

 those of the common Stockdove, present no appreciable difference; their general 

 dimensions and proportions are the same. This species, therefore, so easily modi- 

 fied by certain influences which Man has taken advantage of to produce the variety 

 of forms which exist in our aviaries and dovecots, has been propagated without 

 alteration from a very remote period to our times ; the Stockdove of Aurignac 

 seems to resemble in its osteological characters that of our woods. 



GALLING. 



37. THE WILLOW-GROUSE. Tetrao albus, Gmelin ; Lagopus albus, Vieillot. Le 

 Lagopede blanc. 



In most of the Caves numerous bones of Tetrao are found, especially of Tetrao 

 albus. This abundance can only be accounted for by admitting that Man used 

 those birds as food, and brought thither the produce of his chase; for if the 

 Grouse had been carried in by Birds of prey or carnivorous Mammals, the bones 

 would generally be broken, gnawed, and the articular heads would have disap- 

 peared, as Steenstrup has so well shown in his memoir on the bones from the 

 Kjokkenmoddings of Denmark ; while in general the various pieces of the skeleton 

 of the Willow-Grouse are perfectly preserved, and on many of them we observe fine 



