752 MR. W. K. PARKER ON SOME FOSSIL BIRDS. [Dec. 12, 
10. Pretiminary Notes on some Fossit Birps FROM THE 
ZEBBUG Cave, Matta. By W. K. Parken, F.R.S., F.Z.S., evc. 
Four or five years since, the late Dr. Falconer and Capt. Spratt 
put into my hands a box of fossil bird-bones from the Zebbug 
Cave, Malta. Amongst these was the anterior part of a sternum 
showing part of the large cavity into which the trachea had entered, 
This structure made the determination of this particular bone easy, 
as it must have belonged either to a Crane or toa Swan. Dr. Fal- 
coner and I compared this and the other bones with those of the 
Cranes and Swans in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, and 
we agreed that these treasures were the remains of ‘ Lamellirostral”’ 
birds. Afterwards I went over them all in detail and transmitted, 
through my friend Prof. Rupert Jones, a list of them to that great 
paleontologist. A few months since, Capt. Spratt requested me to 
describe these bones, so as to form a paper which should be illus- 
trated by a plate of the best of the fossils, and the paper itself to 
be an accompaniment to a larger and more important memoir by 
Mr. Busk, on the remains of the three species of Elephants, which 
he has worked out, from the same cave. This latter gentleman has 
recently given me for description some additional bird-bones from the 
same source. These newer specimens have among them the hinder 
part of the skull which corresponds to one of the three species which I 
have been able to determine. A great proportion of these bird-bones 
are those of the limbs, many of the shorter being nearly perfect, whilst 
the longer bones are mostly broken in pieces about three or four 
inches in length. 
The first species was a gigantic Swan, nearly one-third larger 
than average individuals of the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor). The 
head and more than half of the long bones belong to this kind. Its 
wings appear to have had the same relative length as those of the 
tame Swan; but the thigh-bone was relatively shorter, the tarso- 
metatarse (shank) was considerably longer in proportion. The most 
remarkable difference, however, between this extinct species (which 
I propose to call C. falconeri) is to be found in the comparative 
length of the phalanges ; for whilst the proximal joint of the middle 
toe is one-fourth thicker than that of the Mute Swan, it is only three- 
fourths the length; so that whilst C. falconeri was between one- 
third and one-fourth larger than the common kind, it stood on 
longer legs, and had the comparatively short toes of a Goose. 
The next species, that to which the important sternal fragment 
belonged, showing it to be a species of Hooper, I have doubtfully 
named C. musicus(?). Having recently examined the osteological 
specimens in the Museum of the College of Surgeons which are 
attributed to C. ferus* (see Cat. Mus. Coll. Surg. vol. i. p. 233, 
nos. 1241-1248), I am strongly inclined to think, from the extreme 
difference of size, that some of the smaller ones belong to C. bew- 
ickit. The smaller bones from Malta may either belong to small 
individuals (perhaps females) of C. mustcus, or perhaps to the smaller 
C. bewickit. Besides the piece of sternum and many shaft-bones 
* A synonym of C. musicus. 
