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V, MISCELLANEA, 



I. Ornithichnites, and the Coprolites of Birds. 



Some remarkably fine and perfect slabs, impressed with the foot- 

 marks of birds, have lately been discovered in the sandstone of 

 Turner's Falls, Massachusetts, by Dr. Deane ; and are described in 

 the number of Silliman's Journal for January, 1844. The finest of 

 these impressions are upon shales with a smooth glossy surface, and 

 one bed has been described containing more than a hundred foot- 

 marks belonging to four or five varieties of birds, the entire surface 

 being pitted by a shower of fossil rain-drops. The true characters 

 of the foot of the ancient birds — the rows of joints, the claws, and 

 the integuments — are all preserved in this interesting spot. 



Of the various marks, the largest indicates a length of stride of 

 about 12 inches ; but the middle size, only one fourth as large, has 

 a stride of 20 to 23 inches. It appears that the zigzag direction 

 of the former indicates a heavy short-legged bird, while the other 

 must have had long legs ; it is also feebly impressed, and therefore 

 probably belonged to a much lighter animal. 



One of the slabs obtained is about 6 by 8 feet in dimensions, 

 and contains upwards of seventy -five impressions ; consisting of 

 five sets and a half of the larger species, four sets of the smaller, 

 and several others. They are all remarkably distinct. Another 

 slab contains several of the larger steps, and a row of two im- 

 pressions of an immense bird with a short broad foot, five inches 

 by six, apparently palmated. The stride is twenty -nine inches, and 

 the stratum seems to have bent beneath the great weight of the 

 animal, impressing the bed next below. — Silliman's Journal, 

 January, 1844. 



In Silliman's Journal for Oct. will be found a paper by Professor 

 Hitchcock on the subject of Ichnolithology, in the course of which 

 he alludes to the recent discovery of the coprolites of birds in hard 

 calcareous rock, associated with Ornithichnites. The spot in which 

 they (the Coprolites) were found, seems to have been a resort of 

 the bird, for numerous tracks here met with interfere with one 

 another, and occur in successive layers. In the midst of them 

 were found a few egg-shaped flattened bodies, about an inch in 

 diameter and two inches long, of a dark colour, and considerably 

 softer than the enclosing rock, which is very hard and compact. 

 When broken crosswise, they usually exhibit a more or less perfect 

 concentric arrangement, and are sometimes a little convoluted. 



