Present distribution of the so called Ratitae. 173 



very desirable that if such remains are found, the age of the 

 deposits in which they occur should be carefully determined. 

 Although at present we know so little of it, for convenience of 

 reference I propose to call this new form Psavimornis rothschildi 

 nov. gen. et sp. 



Some fragments of the shell of an egg of an Ostrich picked 

 up near the fossil described above, have been sent to me for 

 examination. Their outer surface is smooth and polished, and 

 in the absence of any pitting, is much like that of the egg of 

 Struthio camelus, except that the pores show a tendency to open 

 in small groups more than is the case in most of the specimens 

 of the egg-shell of that species that I have examined. This difife- 

 rence is, however so slight that considering the degree to which 

 individual variations do occur in egg-shells, there seems no reason 

 to suppose that this egg is other than that of St. camelus. 



Of somewhat greater interest are some fragments of the egg- 

 shell of a Struthious bird said to have come from the neighbour- 

 hood of the Ken or Kain River in Banda, Northern India. The 

 specimens were purchased by Mr. E. Bidwell at Stevens' Auction 

 Rooms among some collections of Mr. Archibald Carlyle, who 

 for many years was employed on the Archaeological Survey of 

 India. They were in a tin-box labelled ,,Nallas, Kain River, 

 Banda", as already noticed by Mr. Bidwell in the Bulletin Brit. 

 Ornith. Club, vol. XV (1904), p. 72. The apparently somewhat 

 mineralised condition of the shell, together with the fact that 

 there are some traces of adherent matrix, especially on some of the 

 pore groups is in favour of its fossil origin. Comparison of the 

 shell with that of recent Ostrich eggs shows, that in the arrange- 

 ment of the pores in closely packed groups at the bottom of 

 very shallow, but sharply defined depressions, shows that it is 

 exactly like that of Struthio molybdophanes. On the other hand 

 its thickness, 2.4 mm., is greater than that of any Ostrich egg-shell 

 measured by me or recorded by Nathusius, and in this respect it 

 comes midway between the two specimens of the egg of Struthio- 

 lithus chersonensis, as given by Eastman 



If it can be proved that this egg-shell did actually come from 

 the locality mentioned, its occurrence is a fact of considerable 

 interest from the point of view of geographical distribution. It 

 is well known that there was a true Ostrich (Struthio asiaticus 

 Milne-Edwards) in India during the Pliocene period and at the 

 present day Struthio ranges into Arabia and perhaps formerly into 

 Baluchistan. Moreover Struthiolithus chersonensis which Nathu- 

 sius regards as merely a large Ostrich had a range extending from 

 Southern Russia to Northern China in comparatively late, pro- 

 babl}^ Pleistocene, times so that the occurrence of an Ostrich in 

 India up to a comparatively late date is not so very remarkable. 

 The evidence of the provenance of the specimens however does 



