THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. IV. 



No. VI.— JUNE, 1897. 



OI^IGX^NTJ^Xi ^ft.ie,TICLES. 



L — Note on a nearly complete Skeleton of uEptornis from 



Madagascar. 



By C. W. Andrews, B.A., B.Sc, F.G.S., 



Assistant in the British Museum (Natural History). 



(PLATE IX.) 



THE growth of our knowledge of the gigantic extinct birds of 

 Madagascar has been a very slow one. The first notice of 

 their occurrence was published in 1851 by I. Geofifroy St. Hilaire ; 

 but it is only within the last two or three years that any part 

 of their skeleton, except the bones of the leg and some very 

 imperfect vertebras, has been described. Recently, however, the 

 collections that have reached the Museum of Natural History at 

 Paris, and those obtained by Dr. Forsyth Major for the British 

 Museum, have filled most of the gaps, and all the important parts 

 of the skeleton are now known. 



The present note is a preliminary account of a nearly complete 

 skeleton, that may for the present be referred to ySpyornis Hilde- 

 hrandti, a species described in 1893 by Burckhardt ^ on the evidence 

 of the bones of the leg and an imperfect pelvis. Unfortunately, this 

 specimen is not composed of the bones belonging to one individual, 

 but has been reconstructed from the immense series of remains 

 collected in the neighbourhood of Sirabe by Dr. C. L Forsyth Major 

 and his companion, M. Eobert, during their recent visit to 

 Madagascar. This collection includes many hundreds of bones, 

 nearly all referable to this species, so that, iu spite of the 

 considerable degree of individual variation in size to which these 

 birds are subject, it has been possible to construct a skeleton which 

 must, at least, very nearly resemble one belonging to a single 

 individual. 



Many of the more important parts of this specimen, including 

 the skull, sternum, shoulder-girdle, and humerus, have already been 

 described and figured in the Ibis for July, 1896, and only their 

 more striking peculiarities need here be noticed, while in the 

 case of the vertebral column and pelvis a somewhat more detailed, 

 but necessarily brief account will be given. 



^ " TJeber ^jsyorwis " : Palaeontologische Abhandlungen, neue Folge, Bd. ii. 

 Heft 2. (Jena, 1893.) 



DECADE IV. VOL. IV. NO. VI. 16 



N 



