173 SUPPIEMENTAIIT NOTES. 



chambers of the phragmocone ; the latter is seen extending downwards till it terminates in a point 

 or apex ; that part of the cavity in the guard is called the alveolus. The siphuncle, or tube which 

 extends through the entire series of chambers, and is situated on the ventral margin, is indicated 

 at c, c. The dorsal processes {a, a) are seen on their inner aspect at the upper part ; the diverging 

 lines (m) between them indicate the impressions of the soft parts, of which some traces remain. 



III. Fossil Eemains of Birds. — The Moa, or Dinornis of New Zealand. The bones of birds are 

 of extreme rarity in a fossil state. Throughout the immense series of the palaeozoic and secondary 

 formations — the accumulated sedimentary deposits of innumerable ages — no unquestionable indi- 

 cations of the existence of this class of highly organized beings have been brought to light. 



In the Triassic, or New Red argillaceous sandstones of the valley of the Connecticut River, 

 in North America, some very remarkable phenomena have, however, been discovered, and which 

 in the opinions of many eminent observers render it highly probable, that at the period when 

 these strata were deposited, numerous birds, some of colossal magnitude, abounded on the then 

 dry land. When slabs of these sandstones are split asunder, or exposed, so as to exhibit the 

 sedimentary surface which separates one layer from another, the foot-prints of many species of 

 bipeds are perceived deeply impressed on the stone, and disposed in such manner as to prove 

 that they are the tracks of animals that walked over the surface of the deposit when it was in a 

 soft or plastic state. The close analogy of these imprints to those of birds' feet, not only in their 

 general resemblance, but also in the disposition of the tracks, and in the relation of the distance 

 of the stride, and the depth and shallowness of the impressions, to the size of the respective 

 feet, tends to corroborate the inference first enunciated by Professor Hitchcock, and subsequently 

 confirmed by other geologists, that these mysterious markings on the rock, are natural records of the 

 existence of various tribes of birds during the Triassic period;' but unfortunately the only 

 certain evidence of the correctness of this opinion — remains of the skeletons — is wanting ; not 

 a vestige of a vertebrated animal of a higher class than fishes and reptiles has been discovered.^ 



In the vast fluviatile formation — the Wealden — of the south-east of England, which abounds 

 in the remains of terrestrial plants and reptiles, many fragments of bones of such tenuity as to 

 indicate that they belonged to animals capable of flight, have from time to time been collected 

 since my first discovery and announcement, in 1822, of supposed birds' bones in the strata of 

 TUgate Forest. Some of these relics were declared by Baron Cuvier, and subsequently by 

 Professor Owen, to be unquestionably those of birds ; probably some species of waders. But 

 recent observations have rendered it doubtful whether all the specimens of this class from the 

 Wealden, like those from Stonesfield, are not to be regarded as referable to flying reptiles 

 (Pterodactyles).' 



In the chalk of Kent several bones of a very large flying animal have been obtained from 

 a quarry at Bjirham, near Maidstone; some of these are figured and described in Professor 

 Owen's beautiful work on British Fossil Mammals and Birds, as those of a bird alhed to the 

 Albatross ; but the occurrence in the same quarry of jaws with teeth, and other undoubted 

 remains of a gigantic Pterodactyle,'' and the absence in the specimens figured of osteological 

 characters exclusively ornithic, seem to support the conclusion that these also must be ascribed to 

 flying reptiles. 



' Travels in North America, vol. ii. pi. 7. 



- See Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 556. OrnitMchnites, or Fossil Footprints of Birds ; Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 808. 

 ^ Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 438, 440. I still think it probable, however, that bones of birds will be detected 

 among the Wealden fossils. 



* These fossils are in the splendid museum of J. S. Bowerbank, Esq. of Highbury Grove, Islington. 



