488 Miscellaneous. 



lest, under the chilling shade of synonymy, they lose the power 

 which they need in all its fulness to help them solve the more im- 

 portant problems which, from the sides of embryology, anatomy, 

 and palaeontology, are receiving, if not their solution, yet their due 

 attention. 



The influences of " environment " are carefully noted by our 

 authors, who are led to think that, in some cases at any rate, " the 

 exigencies of arctic existence have acted in retarding the progress 

 of growth-characters and in the maintenance of the youthful or 

 more simple form." Again, they direct attention to the variations 

 which they have observed in the length of the spinelets of the paxillse 

 of G. papposus, pointing out that extreme shortness is probably the 

 result of abrasion, and consequently depends on the nature of the 

 locality. " Thus a starfish inhabiting the comparative calms of 

 deep water would be subject to much less friction than one fre- 

 quenting a littoral district or amongst pebbly shingle." 



From the point of view of the zoological student we desire, if we 

 may be allowed, to congratulate the authors on the conclusion of a 

 work which wiU be to them a source of pardonable pride, and our- 

 selves on a monograph which sufficiently proves that there are in 

 England two naturalists, at any rate, to whom a valuable collection 

 of Echinodermata may very safely be intrusted for description. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Discovery of a Fossil Bird in the Jurassic of Wyoming. 

 By 0. C. Maksh. 



The oldest birds hitherto known from American strata are the 

 toothed forms (Odontornithes), from the Middle Cretaceous deposits 

 on the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains. In Europe, three 

 specimens of the genus Archceopteryx have been found in the Juras- 

 sic, but from other formations no remains of this class have been 

 brought to light. The writer has made a careful search for fossil 

 birds iu the Jurassic beds of the West, and has been rewarded by 

 the discovery of various remains, some of which are sufiiciently 

 characteristic for determination. The most important of these 

 specimens is described below. 



Laopterycc priscus, gen. et sp. nov. 



The type specimen of the present species is the posterior portion 

 of the skull, which indicates a bird rather larger than a blue heron 

 (Ardea herodias). The brain-case is so broken that its inner sur- 

 face is disclosed ; and in other respects the skull is distorted ; but it 

 shows characteristic features. The bones of the skull are pneu- 

 matic. The occipital condyle is sessile, hemispherical in form, flat- 

 tened, and slightly grooved above. There is no trace of a posterior 

 groove. The foramen magnum is nearly circular, and small in pro- 



