308 Prof. Hitchcock on Ichnolithology, or Fossil Footmarks. 



On the shale of Turner's Falls, Dr. Deane has recently found 

 a specimen of what I have called, in the first volume of the 

 Transactions of this Association, the Saiiroidichnites Deweyi, 

 (p. 261,) and it confirms still farther the opinion there expressed, 

 "that this is the track of a quadruped." Fig. 10 shows the 

 tracks as they appear on this specimen, and they very probably 

 were made by a small Batrachian ; so that, upon a review of the 

 whole subject, I think this track ought to come under the Tetra- 

 podichnites, and be denominated Batrachoidichnites Deweyi. I 

 am further satisfied that the Oryiithoidicluiites parvuhis of my Re- 

 port is the same as the B. Deweyi, and I shall accordingly strike 

 out the first named species. 



COPROLITES OF BIRDS. 



I now proceed to the most interesting discovery which has 

 been made during the past year, in relation to the fossil footmarks 

 of this country. I am able to state with great confidence, that 

 the coprolites of birds have been found in connection with these 

 tracks ; and although the details of the subject are somewhat pro- 

 lix, yet the curious results to which they lead, and the fact that 

 no coprolites of birds have hitherto been found, will be my apol- 

 ogy for giving them in full.* 



These coprolites were found in connection with the Ornithoid- 

 ichnites Redjieldii, in hard calcareous rock, at Chicopee Falls, 

 in Springfield. The spot where they were found seems to have 

 been a resort for the bird that formed this track ; for the tracks 

 interfere with one another, and occur in successive layers. In the 

 midst of them I found a few ovoid flattened bodies, about an inch 

 in diameter, and perhaps two inches long, of a dark color, and 

 considerably softer than the enclosing rock, which is very hard 

 and compact. When broken crosswise, they usually exhibit a 

 more or less perfect concentric arrangement, or sometimes per- 

 haps a little convoluted, as shown on figs. 9 and 10, which were 

 drawn from specimens a little broken on one side. They adhere 

 so strongly to the rock, that I have not been able to determine 

 precisely their external appearance. 



* The results of Dr. Dana's chemical examination of the fecal relics will be 

 given in connection with the present paper of Prof Hitchcock; but we are reluc- 

 tantly compelled, for want of room, to postpone until our next No. the full details 

 of Dr. Dana's analysis, which will appear in Jan. 1845, as a distinct article. — Eds. 



