520 ME. R. LTDEKKER ON SOME [June 6, 



AmmopercUx^ Ortyx, and Coturnix, while tbey are totally different 

 from Caccabis, Perdix, Phasianus, and most other members of the 

 group. Probably the extinct Palceoj)e7'dix, of the Sansan beds, 

 had a similar type of humerus, but the tarso-metatarsus is of a 

 less flattened type. To the genus Palcwrtyx, Dr. Deperet has 

 referred two imperfect humeri from Grive-St.-Alban, with which a 

 complete specimen in the present collection agrees ; and as the 

 associated specimens of the tarso-metatarsus appear to present the 

 characters distinctive of that genus, I am disposed to accept his 

 determination. 



The right humerus (represented in tigs. 9, 9 a of Plate XLI.)agrees 

 precisely with the distal half of the corresponding bone figured by 

 Dr. Deperet in pi. xiii. fig. 51 of vol. iv. of the Arch. Mus. Lyon, 

 as one of the types of Palceortyx edwardsi ; while its proximal 

 portion appears to correspond with that portion of another right 

 humerus depicted in fig. 52 of the above-cited plate. In total 

 length the humerus here figured measures 0,055 mm., or some- 

 what more than the corresponding bone of P. blancJiardi, Milne- 

 Edwards, from the Allier Miocene, in which the length is 0,047. 

 According to Dr. Deperet the humerus of P. edwardsi differs from 

 that of the last-named species not only in its superior size, but 

 likewise in the absence of a distinct prominence on the outer side of 

 the head. Compared with the corresponding bones of Ammoperdix 

 and Orti/x, the present specimen, although much larger, is generally 

 very similar, although there are certain differences which are 

 evidently of generic value. The large size of the tricipital fossa 

 differentiates the specimen from the existing Oriental Cryptonyx, 

 and the extinct Palcmcnjptonyx from the Pliocene of Eoussillon \ 



The right tarso-metatarsus (represented in fig. 10), of ^Ahich the 

 proximal extremity is imperfect, is evidently that of a partridge- 

 like gallinaceous bird, and as it agrees approximately in relative 

 size with the humerus, it may be tentatively assigned to the same 

 distinctive species. Since it appears to present all the characters 

 of Palceortyx rather than of Palceoperdix ^, it confirms Dr. Deperet's 

 reference of the species under consideration to the former rather 

 than to the latter genus. 



PAL.i:ORTTX MAXIMA, u. sp. (Plate XLI. fig. 11.) 



The slightly imperfect right coracoid of a gallinaceous bird 

 (represented in fig. 11), being of too large dimensions to have 

 belonged to the same species as the humerus above mentioned ^ 

 while it agrees in all essential characters with the corresponding 

 bone of Palceortyx, Ammoperdix, and Ortyx, may be taken to 

 indicate a second species of the first-named genus, distinguished 

 from all the others by its superior size. The length of this coracoid 



^ Deperet, Comptes Eendus, vol. cxiv. p. 691 (1892). 



2 See Cat. Foss. Birds Brit. Mus. p. 137. 



^ In P. gallica, of which the humerus measures 0,042, or 0,005 less than the 

 corresponding bone of P. blanchardi, the length of the assigned coracoid is 

 only 0,025. 



