98 Geological Society. 



December 19th, 1877.— Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B,, F.Tt.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On Argillornis longipennis, Owen, a large Bird of Flight, from 

 the Eocene Clay of Sheppey." By Prof. Owen, C.B., P.R.S., 

 F.G.S., &c. 



In this paper the author described some remains of a large bird 

 obtained by Mr. W, H. Shrubsole from the London Clay of Sheppey, 

 consisting of parts of fractured humeri belonging to the right and 

 left sides of the same species or perhaps individual, and including the 

 head of the bone, with portions of the upper and lower parts of the 

 shaft. The texture of the shaft, the thinness of its bony wall, and 

 the large size of the cavity recall the characters of the wing-bones 

 of the large Cretaceous Pterodactyles. The author indicated the 

 characters which led him to regard the remains under consideration 

 as those of a volant bird, most nearly approaching the genera Pele- 

 canus and Diomedea ; and as the evidence derived from the cranium 

 of Dasornis would indicate a bird too large to be upborne by wings 

 to which these bones might have belonged, whilst the skull of Odon- 

 topteryx is far too small to have formed part of a bird with wings 

 as large as those of the Albatross, and Lithomis and Pelargornis 

 are excluded by the characters of their remains, the author concluded 

 that the bones obtained by Mr. Shrubsole furnished indications of a 

 new genus and species of flying birds, for which he proposed the 

 name of Argillornis longipennis. He regarded it as probably a long- 

 winged natatorial bird, most nearly related to Diomedea, but con- 

 siderably exceeding the Albatross (D. exulans) in size. The author 

 remarked that the generic name Megalornis, proposed by Prof. Seeley 

 for the Lithomis emuianus, Bowerb., had been preoccupied by the late 

 Mr. G. R. Gray. 



2. " Contributions to the History of the Deer of the European 

 Miocene and Pliocene Strata." By Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The author commenced by referring to the difficulties attending 

 the study of the European Miocene and Pliocene Deer, and indi- 

 cated that the majority of the known antlers may be referred to two 

 categories — an earlier or Capreoline, and a later or Axidine type. 

 To the Capreoli he referred the following species: — Dicroceros ele- 

 gans, Lart. ( =Prox furcatus, Hensel), Cervus dicranoceros, Kaup (in- 

 cluding C. anoceros and trigonoceros, Kaup), and Cervus Matheroni, 

 Gerv. (=C. Brnvardi), from the Miocene, and Cervus avstrulis, 

 Gerv., and C. cuscmus, Croizet & Jobert, from the Pliocene. To the 

 AxEiDEs belong Cervus Perrieri, Cr. & Job. (including C. issiodorensis 

 and pardinensis, of the same authors), C. etueriariim, Cr, & Job. 

 (=C. Trusoides, Pom,, and C. perollensis and sfylodus, Brav,), G. 



