152 FOSSIL BIRDS. 



the extremity of the dentelated spine of the fin of some fish, 

 Rome Delille, in his catalogue of the collection of Davila, 

 mentions a beak found in the neighbourhood of Reutlingen, 

 and a bone from Cronstadt, which he thought belonged to a 

 chicken ; but this pretended beak turns out to be nothing but 

 a bivalve shell, which shows itself obliquely on the surface of 

 the stone. If it were a genuine beak, it would differ most 

 prodigiously from any thing with which we are acquainted ;n 

 existing birds; as for the bone, there is neither figure nor 

 description of it in the work. 



Scheuchzer speaks of the head of a bird, in a black schistus 

 from Eisleben ; but he subsequently adds, that it might be 

 taken for a pink-flower — this is quite sufficient. 



Many writers quote the description of the environs of Masse! 

 by Hermann, as if he had spoken there of the bones of birds ; 

 but the fact is, he only mentions small bones, without specify- 

 ing to what they belong. 



The error of compilers respecting the petrified cuckoo men- 

 tioned by Zannichelli, is still more glaring, and positively 

 ludicrous. That author, in fact, speaks of a fish so called, 

 and which belongs to the genus Trigla {Trigla culususoi Lin- 

 naeus, in Italian 'pesce capone) and not of a bird. 



There are other testimonies on this subject, wholly unsup- 

 ported by details, figures, or descriptions. Such are those in 

 the subterranea Silesia of JVolkmann, and those of many 

 other systematic mineralogists. It is utterly impossible to 

 establish any thing on such vague indications. 



It is quite evident that what are termed incrustations, have 

 nothing to say to the subject in question. We are not inquir- 

 ing whether birds, exposed in particular situations to waters 

 charged with mineral substances, may be enveloped in those 

 substances, but whether there have been any remains of birds 

 arrested and inclosed in the grand strata which occupy the 

 external surface of the globe. 



Thus, the examples of birds, of eggs, and of nests, incrusted 



