244 AVES. 



early Tertiary forms are certainly annectent types, and the past 

 distribution of several sub-orders differs much from that of the 

 present day. It will suffice, however, to mention a few salient 

 points. 



The Impennes (Penguins) are known by fossils only in the 

 southern regions they still inhabit, and these afford no informa- 

 tion concerning their ancestry. The Albatrosses (Diomedea) 

 were more widely distributed in the Pliocene period than at 

 present, the tarso-metatarsus of an extinct species having been 

 found in the Red Crag of Suffolk. The extinct Rails of New 

 Zealand (Aptornis), the Chatham Islands (Diaphorapteryx), and 

 Mauritius (Aphanapteryx), are of much interest on account of 

 their close affinities to each other and to the living Ocydromus 

 of New Zealand. Gigantic extinct raptorial birds which may be 

 related to the Cariamas (Phororhachos) occur in Tertiary strata 

 in Patagonia. The remarkable Gallinaceous bird, the Hoatzin 

 (Opisthocomiis) of South America, is represented by a closely 

 similar genus (Filholornis) in the Upper Eocene (Phosphorites) 

 of southern France. The Dodo (Didus) and Solitaire (Pezo- 

 phaps) are large extinct ground-pigeons, whose remains occur in 

 the surface deposits of Mauritius and Rodriguez respectively. A 

 generalized Flamingo (Palcelodus) is very common in the Mio- 

 cene of Allier, France. A fish-eating bird apparently related to 

 the Gannet (Sula) is represented by an imperfect skull from the 

 London Clay (Lower Eocene) of Sheppey, Kent. This is named 

 Odontopteryx toliapica, and is remarkable for the denticulation 

 of the jaw, pointed bony processes (not teeth) rising into what 

 were no doubt similar processes of the horny beak. A second 

 skull from Sheppey (Argillornis longipennis) seems to belong to 

 the same group, but is too imperfect to show the precise cha- 

 racter of the jaws. A Secretary Vulture with somewhat stouter 

 limbs than the South African form, occurs in the Miocene of 

 Allier (Serpentarius robustus) ; and there seems to be an ances- 

 tral Trogon (Archceotrogon) in the Upper Eocene of southern 

 France. A parrot (Psittacus veneauxi) rather smaller than the 

 Grey Parrot, is also recorded from Allier. 



