1891.] MR. R. LYDEKKER ON A LARGE EXTINCT STORK. 477 



Miocene (Oligoceue) of Allier under the name of Pelargopsis magnus 

 (correctly magna). This species was of the approximate size of 

 Ciconia alba ; the genus being distinguished, among other characters, 

 by certain features of the tarso-metatarsus, such as the larger rela- 

 tive size of the third trochlea, the narrower groove between the third 

 and fourth trochlese, and the higher position of the foramen in that 

 groove. Again, the tibio-tarsus is more compressed at its distal 

 extremity, and has no intercondylar tubercle near the bridge over 

 the extensor tendons. 



At the time of writing the British Museum ' Catalogue of Fossil 

 Birds ' I accepted the name Pelargopsis, having overlooked the 

 circumstance that it is preoccupied by Gloger '^ for a genus of 

 Alcedinidce ; I accordingly propose to replace this name by Pelar- 

 godes. 



In another part of the work cited Milne-Edwards incidentally 

 refers to a second Stork from Allier, under the name of Argala 

 arvernensis. There is, however, no reference to the specimens on 

 which this determination is based, and the name must accordingly 

 be regarded as a MS. one ; and the evidence for the existence of 

 Leptoptilus {Argala) in these deposits is therefore at present 

 unavailable. 



In the ' British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Birds ' ^ I de- 

 scribed and figured the distal part of a tarso-metatarsus belonging 

 to a Stork of somewhat larger size than Pelargodes magnus (as 1 

 will now call it), under the name of Propelargus cayluooensis, that 

 specimen having been obtained from the Upper Eocene (Oligocene) 

 Phosphorites of France. At the same time I recorded the distal 

 extremity of a tibio-tarsus and the proximal end of a tarso-meta- 

 tarsus from Allier which I thought might very probably belong to 

 Propelargus, and possibly to the same species as the one from the 

 Phosphorites. These specimens indicated birds of the approximate 

 size of Leptoptilus javanicus, which is considerably larger than 

 Ciconia alba. 



The foregoing summary epitomizes, I believe, our knowledge of the 

 larger Giconiidce of the lower European Tertiaries. Recently Mr. A. 

 Smith Woodward put into my hands the right coracoid and the left 

 metacarpus of a large bird from the Lower Miocene of St. Gerand- 

 Le-Puy, Allier, which had been recently obtained for the British 

 Museum. These specimens, which apparently belonged to one 

 individual, are represented in the drawing (p. 478). I at once 

 recognized that they indicated a large Stork ; and on comparing 

 them with the corresponding bones of Ciconia alba found that they 

 considerably exceeded that species in size. 



The right coracoid, of which the ventral aspect is represented in 

 figure A, agrees so closely in contour with the corresponding 

 bone of Ciconia alba, that it appears impossible to find characters by 

 which it can be generically distinguished. Its total length is 0,112, 



1 Handbuch d. Naturgescbichte, p. 338 (1842). 

 ^ Pages 65, 66. 



