FOSSIL BIRDS. 



557 



which Cuvier gave to the collection of the fossils of this 

 noted locality, brought to light so many examples of eocene 

 ornitholites that they form the subject of a special chapter 

 in the ' Ossemens Fossiles,'"" and have been referred, or 

 rather approximated, to the genera Halitetus, Buteo, and 

 Strix, in the Order Accipitres ; to the genus Coturnix in 

 Gallinacea ; to the genera Ibis, Scolopax, and Pelidna, 

 in Grattatores, and to the genus Pelecanus amongst the 

 Palmipedes. Mr. J. W. Flower possesses some small Orni- 

 tholites from the fresh-water eocene deposits at Hordwell, 

 Hants, including a tarso-metatarsal of a Bird, closely 

 resembling that figured in Cuviens ' Ossemens Fossiles, 1 

 t. iii. pi. 72, fig. 2 ; which is the most common kind in 

 the fresh-water eocene at Montmartre. In one of the last- 

 discovered fossil birds of Montmartre, noticed by Cuvier, the 

 trachea or windpipe, and the little sclerotic bony plates of 

 the eye-ball, were preserved. Fossil eggs of birds have 

 been found in the fresh-water tertiary deposits of Cournon 

 in Auvergne, and fossil feathers in the calcareous beds of 

 Montebolca. 



M. Escher of Zurich has obtained from the neocomiau 

 schists or lower greensand of the Canton of the Glaris, an 

 ornitholite, which, from the characters of the bones of 

 the wings and feet, M. v. Meyer has referred to the Pas- 

 serine Order : this ancient bird was about the size of a 

 Lark. 



With regard to the pliocene ornitholites of Britain, I 

 have recognized the humerus of a bird of flight, about 

 the size of a Bam-Owl, which was discovered in the same 

 bed of Norwich crag that has yielded remains of the 

 Mastodon : the specimen is now in the collection of Mr. 

 Fitch of Norwich. Extremely rare are the remains of 

 birds in the fresh-water deposits or marine drift of the 

 * 4to, torn. iii. p. 302, pi. 72, 75. 



