558 GRALLATORES. 



newer pliocene period, which so abound in mammalian 

 fossils. The light bodies of birds float long on the sur- 

 face after death ; and for one bird that becomes imbedded 

 in the sediment at the bottom, perhaps ninety-nine are 

 devoured before decomposition has sufficiently advanced to 

 allow the skeleton to sink. Dr. Buckland has figured 

 the fossil humerus of a bird, as large as that of a Wild 

 Goose, from the diluvial clay of Lawford.' 35 ' But most of 

 the British ornitholites of this geological period have been 

 discovered in ossiferous caverns. Dr. Buckland enume- 

 rates the following from the Cave at Kirkdale.-f- " Raven, 

 Pigeon, Lark, a small species of Duck, resembling the 

 ' Summer Duck, 1 and a bird not ascertained, being about 

 the size of a Thrush." The fossils sanction a reference 

 to the genera Corvus, Columba, Sec., but not a closer de- 

 termination. The pigeon is represented by a left ulna, 

 and was of a species larger than our wild or domestic 

 kinds. The humerus of a Small Wader has likewise been 

 found. Similar ornitholites have been discovered in the 

 cave at Rentes Hole, and in that at Berry Head, near Tor- 

 bay. From the latter locality I have recognised the follow- 

 ing remains : the scapula, humerus, ulna, and proximal end 

 of the metacarpus of a Falcon, rather larger than the Falco 

 peregrinus. The remains of birds become more common in 

 the fen and turbary deposits, and more easily referable to 

 existing species ; but I have restricted myself in the present 

 work to the description of those which are actually fossil. 



* ' Reliquiae Diluvianae,' p. 27, pi. 13. figs. 9 uid 10. 

 t ' Reliquiae Diluvianse,' p. 15. 



