THE 
GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 
NEW SERIES] DECADE Thi VOE xX: 
No. III. —MARCH, 1883. 
Clee ICE I ey Ib aS) 
J.—Own THE REMAINS OF A Rep-THROATED Diver, CoLyuBus SEP- 
TENTRIONALIS, LINN., FROM THE “ MUNDESLEY River BED.” 
By E. T. Newron, F.G.S., 
of H. M. Geological Survey, Museum of Practical Geology. 
(Published by permission.) 
[PLATE III.] 
HE remains of Birds from Quaternary deposits in this country 
have been so rarely recorded, that any fresh evidence, throw- 
ing light upon our Pleistocene avian fauna, cannot but be of interest. 
The specimen about to be described was found in the “ Mundesley 
River Bed,” from whence was obtained the Hmys lutaria described 
in this Magazine in 1879 (Dec. II. Vol. VI. p. 304). In a note 
appended to that paper, Mr. H. B. Woodward has given a short 
account of this Mundesley deposit, and it will be found fully 
described in the Geological Survey Memoir, by Mr. C. Reid, “On 
the Geology of the Country around Cromer,” pp. 119 and 126. 
Some time ago, the last-named gentleman was fortunate enough 
to find in this deposit a number of well-preserved bird’s bones, 
evidently belonging to one individual. ~ The specimen is now in 
the Museum of the Geological Survey, and comprises a number of 
bones entirely freed from the matrix and for the most part perfect ; 
and a block of indurated sandy marl, containing a somewhat crushed 
pelvis, some vertebree, a right femur with a tibia and fibula; these 
parts remaining in their natural relations. The separate bones are, 
a scapula, coracoid, humerus, radius, ulna, metacarpal, middle phalanx 
of wing, tibio-tarsus, fibula, and tarso-metatarsus; also fragments of 
sternum, vertebrz and ribs. 
The relatively small and strongly curved femur, the large size of 
the rotula-process of the tibia, which extends far above the femoral 
articulation, and the remarkably flattened tarso-metatarsus, show at 
once that these remains are referable to the genus Colymbus. 
Through the kindness of Prof. Flower, and of Mr. A. D. Bartlett, 
of the Zoological Society, I have been able to compare these fossils 
with several recent skeletons of Colymbus septentrionalis, the red- 
throated diver, and of C. torquatus, the great northern diver. The 
measurements given below are taken from some of these specimens. 
The C. torquatus is much larger than the fossil bird, which evidently 
does not belong to this species. Most of the skeletons of C. septen- 
trionalis are rather larger than the fossil; but one of them, labelled 
as a young specimen (Roy. Coll. Surgeons, No. 1166a), is a little 
DECADE II.—VOL. X.—NO. III. | ri 
