332 Canadian Record of Science. 



the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. The 

 paper is based on a specimen collected by Dr. George M. Dawson from 

 the Tertiary shales of the west coast of Vancouver Island, and belongs 

 to the Geological Survey of Canada. The bone was sent by Capt. 

 Jacques, of Victoria, B.C., to Dr. G. M. Dawson, and was obtained at 

 Carinanagh Point, Vancouver Island. The specimen is carefully 

 described by Prof. Cope on pages 449 et seq., and consists of the 

 " superior part of a tarsometatarse " belonging to a new genus of bird. 

 It was a singular but rather fortunate occurrence that this portion of 

 the skeleton was preserved, inasmuch as the "tarsometatarse is per- 

 haps the most characteristic part of the skeleton of a bird." Prof. 

 Cope finds that this extinct species of birds, wliich used to inhabit our 

 western coast in Tertiary times, and to which he lias given the generic 

 designation of Gyphornis, bears greater resemblance to the Steganopo- 

 des or Pelicans than to any other family. " The anterior aspect of the 

 bone," Cope says {loc. sit., p. 451), "is almost exactly like that of 

 Pelecamts," but the "posterior aspect resembles that of none of the 

 order, in the absence of the tendinous grooves." When compared with 

 Cretaceous birds, Cope finds but one " point of resemblance," and that 

 to the extinct form Hesperornis, in " the ridge-like elevation of the 

 anterior part of the external tibial facet, which is in both genera con- 

 nected with the intercondylar tuberosity." The affinities of this bird, 

 Prof. Cope holds, are more clearly with the " Steganopodes," but they 

 have combined with these certain affinities to " more primitive birds 

 with a simple hypotarsal structure." Cyphornis magnus, Cope, is the 

 name ascribed to this extinct bird from Canada, which inhabited our 

 western shores in Tertiary times. " As regards its habits, it may be 

 said that the pneumatic character of its foot bone renders it improbable 

 that it depended on this member for habitual locomotion on land. In 

 all the birds of terrestrial habit which I have examined, and of which 

 I can give information, the tarsometatarse is either filled with cancel- 

 lous tissue, dense or open, or the walls of the shaft are thick, as in the 

 Emeu. The presumed affinity with the Steganopodes indicates natatory 

 habits and probable capacity for flight. Should this power have been 

 developed in Cyphornis magnus, it will have been much the largest bird 

 of flight thus far known." On plate XX. of this livraison Cope figures 

 six views of the tarsometatarse in question, and in the text expresses 

 the hope that new and additional material will be forthcoming from 

 which to describe more fully the present imperfectly known but 

 interesting species. 



Regarding tlie precise geological horizon to which to refer the species, 

 Prof. Cope writes : — " The characters of Cyphornis indicate that the 

 bed from which it was obtained is not older than Eocene nor later than 

 Oligocene." H. M. Ami. 



