230 THE BATH OOLITE PERIOD. CHAP. 



in marine strata; perhaps rather among insectivorous birds, as 

 companions of the little mammalia next to be noticed, than among 

 waders, swimmers, and divers, whose functions seem to have been 

 well supplied by the volant lizards already catalogued. Be it 

 as it may, there is no sure evidence yet collected to prove the pre- 

 sence of birds of any order at Stonesfield. 



FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



The specimens now to be noted, though amongst the smallest 

 of fossils, have had a greater influence on the course of geological 

 opinion than even the huge reptiles their contemporaries ; for they 

 were the first discovered proofs of the existence of warm-blooded 

 quadrupeds in the midst of the oolitic ages. Other discoveries since 

 made have indeed established this kind of life as far back as the 

 later triassic period, and produced fresh evidence of the same kind 

 in the lacustrine strata of Purbeck. But still these Stonesfield 

 mammals, resembling some of Australia, and associated with fishes, 

 shells, and plants, of forms which can be almost exactly matched 

 by the living productions of that exceptional region, stand up 

 amidst the obscurity of past ages, northern prototypes of a singular 

 system of modern life belonging to a distant quarter of the globe. 



Taken in the order of discovery, the first to be noticed is a 

 specimen of Amphitherium Broderipii, which was obtained with 

 other fossils from Mr. Joshua Platt (well known as an able collector) 

 about the year 1764, by Sir Christopher Sykes, during his residence 

 in Oxford. This specimen I found in the cabinet of his descendant, 

 the Rev. C. Sykes, of Rooss, in Holderness, in 1828; and at my 

 request he generously presented it to the Museum of the Yorkshire 

 Philosophical Society (Diagram LXXX.). 



At some time before 1818, Mr. Broderip, a student of Corpus 

 Christi College, obtained two specimens, one of whic"h, now known 

 as Amphitherium Prevostii, he allowed his friend Mr. Buckland 

 to possess. Mr. Broderip's specimen, named Phascolotherium 

 Bucklandi, was transferred to the British Museum ; Dr. Buckland's 

 remained at Oxford, and was there inspected by Cuvier during a 

 short visit to England in 1 8 1 8 P. 



P Youngest of a large entourage at Sir J. Banks' conversazione, I had then the 

 privilege of listening to this the greatest of modern biologists. 



