MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 583 



The remains 'of fossil birds are also very numer- 

 ous in these post-pliocene deposits. In the sub- 

 apennine stage of Auvergne, a raptorial vulturine 

 genus, Gathartes, and the natatorial forms of Car- 

 bo, Anas, and Mergus, have been discovered. From 

 the diluvium of New Zealand colossal skeletons 

 have been procured of an extinct genus of Cursorial 

 birds, intermediate in structure between the Ap- 

 teryx and the Cassowary, the Dinornis, one spe- 

 cies of which must have stood twelve feet high ; 

 Notornis, an extinct genus allied to Porphyrio, and 

 the fossil remains of a large and curious parrot 

 related to the genus Nestor, have also been found. 

 From Madagascar an extinct genus named Epy- 

 ornis, of even vaster dimensions than the Dinor- 

 nis, and belonging also to the Cursorial Order, has 

 been lately discovered, together with the remains 

 of its eggs ; and from the Mauritius and the Isle 

 of Rodriguez, enormous extinct species of Colum- 

 bine birds (the Didus ineptus or Dodo), allied to 

 the recent genus Geophaps, have been made known 

 to us by remains of comparatively recent date. 



The Reptilian tribes are here represented by ex- 

 tinct species of recent genera of Ophidians, Ba- 

 trachians, Crocodilidce and Lacertidce. In the 

 newer tertiary bed of the Himalaya, fragments of 

 an enormous fossil tortoise (Megalochelys) have 

 been discovered, justifying the inference that the 

 carapace must have been twenty feet in length. 

 In the sub-apennine stage of (Eningen, the famous 

 fossil, skeleton of Andreas Scheuchzer, a reptile 



