212 Prof. 0. C. Marsh on Hesperornis regalis and 



Wyvilkthomsonia TFa//«cM(?), Perceval Wright, Quarterly Journal of 



Microscopical Science, p. 8, pi. ii. 1870*. 

 Not Tethya miiricata, Bowerbank, Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 117, 1872. 



Sponge subconical, agariciform, having an expanded upper 

 portion or hood, at or around the summit of which are 

 located the exhalent apertures or oscula, and a lower or 

 basal portion bearing numerous fasciculi of attenuate ace- 

 rate and anchorate spicula, the two regions being distinctly 

 marked off from one another by the overlapping of the hood. 

 Spicula of the skeleton large, fusiformi-acerate, expando- 

 ternate, recurvato -tern ate, and bifurcate expando-ternate ; 

 spicula of the sarcode abundant, minute attenuato-stellate, 

 with occasional larger tiiradiate and quadriradiate types. 



Hah. Atlantic, dredged at a depth of 500 fathoms and upwards. 



XXXII. — Description o/ Hesperornis regalis, icitk notices of 

 four other neio Sjjecies of Cretaceous Birds. By Professor 

 0. C. MAESHf. 

 The few remains of birds hitherto described from the Creta- 

 ceous deposits of this country, although of much interest, all 

 pertained to comparatively small species, and belonged, appa- 

 rently, to families still existing |. It is fortunate, therefore^ 

 that the existence of a fossil bird so large and remarkable as 

 the one that forms the subject of the present description should 

 first be made known by the discovery of such important parts 

 of a skeleton as to afford ample material for the determination 

 of its affinities. This interesting discovery has already been 

 announced in this Journal, and the name Hesperornis regalis 

 proposed by the writer for the species thus represented §. The 

 present paper is preliminary to a full description, with illustra- 

 tions, now in com'se of preparation. The other species briefly 

 described in this article are likewise of interest, as they add 

 some new forms to the limited avian fauna heretofore found in 

 the Cretaceous beds of the Atlantic coast. 



Hesperornis regalis , gen. et sp. nov. 

 The remains of this species at present known consist of por- 

 tions of one skeleton, including the nearly entire posterior 

 limbs, from the femur to the terminal phalanges, parts of the 



* Possibly the embryonic condition of Tethya agariciformis. 



t From the 'American Journal of Science and Arts,' n. s. voLiii. May^ 

 1872. 



X Ibid. vol. xlix. p. 205, March 1870. 



§ Ibid. n. s. vol. iii. p. 56, January 1872 ; Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. April 

 1872, p. 326. 



