1856.] OWEN GASTORNIS PARISIENSIS. 215 



close ; and the same may be said with regard to the Aptornis and 

 Notornis. The outer ridge is not developed in the Pezophajjs. The 

 fibular crest, supposing it to be entire in the fossil, is not so strongly 

 developed as in the Swan, the Pelican, and other Natatores, or as in 

 the Ciconia, Otis, Notornis, and other Grallae ; the proportions of 

 that ridge in the Turkey and other GaUince most resemble those in 

 Gastornis. 



As to the form and extent of the inferior trochlear articular surface, 

 nothing precise can be affirmed of its much-mutilated condition in 

 the fossil : the development of the boundary margins and prominent 

 condyles in perfectly preserved tibiae of Bi^iornis, Palapteryx, 

 Aptornis, &c. has so much surpassed any indications given by the 

 first-received mutilated bones of those extinct birds, that due caution 

 has been impressed upon me in regard to inferences from abraded 

 bases of such prominences of their natural state. Far from inferring 

 a flattened surface on the non- articular sides of the condyles of the 

 Gastornis^, the rugged broken peripheral tract surrounding the 

 small portion of the natural surface intimates the concavity which 

 one would find there were the borders of those lateral surfaces 

 perfect. 



The Dinornis, Pezophaps, Notornis, Platalea, Crax, Turkey, and 

 Common Fowl have the lateral surfaces in question as flat as in the 

 Lamellirostres, or as it is possible for them to have been in the 

 Gastornis. No especial affinity of the Paris fossil to any tribe of 

 aquatic birds can be inferred from the external or lateral surfaces of 

 the condyles. The greater prominence of the upper and fore part of 

 that surface of the inner condyle ("malleole interne," Hebert) is a 

 character common to most birds of every order : a strong lateral 

 ligament is attached to that prominence. 



Interesting unquestionably is the median position of the supraten- 

 dinal bridge in Gastornis^, and it would satisfactorily indicate its 

 affinities to the Swan and Goose, were not the same bridge equally 

 medianly situated in the Gallinule, the Notornis, the Raven, some 

 Accipitrine birds, &c. Amongst the GaUince, also, the Turkey so 

 nearly resembles the Gastornis in the position of the bridge, and so 

 much more closely resembles it than does the Swan or Goose in the 

 low tuberosity external to the bridge above the base of the outer 

 condyle, and in the shallow groove dividing that tuberosity from the 

 bridge, that I should infer an affinity of the Gastoimis to the Galli- 

 nacea from the characters of the bridge, rather than to the Lamelli- 

 rostres. That very inclination of the canal to the inner side, and 

 the position of the lower outlet to the left of the median plane, in the 

 Gastornis, while it is a departure from the anserine type, is an ap- 

 proximation to the Gallinaceous and Dinornithic structures. The 

 lower outlet of the tendinous canal, while it is relatively higher in 



* " Les deux condyles portent lateralement en dehors une facette plane, commc 

 cliez les Palmipedes lamellirostres, et non-excavee comme cela a lieu chez 

 Tautruche et les autres courem-s." — lb. p. 579. 



t " L'arcade osseuse est situee a pen pres dans la partie mediane de la face 

 anterieui'e, comme dans le cygne et I'oie." — lb. p. 580. 



VOL. XII. PART I. Q 



