CECOLOGICAL ^^ 



Dr. Forbes as groups which supported his contentions as to the 

 southern origin of animal life, these groups, at the present 

 day, being still essentially southern types. Dr. Forbes' con- 

 tentions were, it should be remarked, not, however, based on 

 the distribution of birds only, but of other groups of vertebrates 

 as well. We are, however, concerned here only with the birds, 

 and these do not support the theory of an Antarctic Continent. 



In the first place, so far from the Trogons, Parrots and 

 Struthious birds being southern forms which later spread more 

 or less northwards, there is evidence to show that they are 

 northern forms which have spread southwards, for fossilised 

 remains of Trogons and Parrots have been found in Oligocene 

 beds in France, while fossil fragments of Struthious birds, 

 allied to the existing Ostrich, have been obtained from the 

 Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills, the ■ Government of Cherson, 

 Russia, the Lower Pliocene of Pikermi, Greece, and from that 

 of the Island of Samos in the Turkish Archipelago. The 

 Secretary-bird {Serpentarius), now confined to South Africa, is 

 represented by remains from the Miocene of Allies. More 

 than this, the earliest known bird, the Jurassic Archaeopteryx, 

 was obtained from the Solenhofen States of Bavaria, while the 

 only other remains of toothed birds have come from the 

 cretaceous formations of North America, e.g., Hesperornis 

 and Ichthyornis, and the Enaliornis from the Cambridge Green- 

 sand (Upper Cretaceous) of England. Besides these we have 

 the curious Odontopteryx — a bird with strongly serrated jaws 

 — apparently related to the Gannet and Cormorant, from the 

 London Clay (Lower Eocene) of Sheppey, Kent, and fragments 

 of apparently Ostrich-like birds, Gastornis, from the Lower 

 Eocene of Western Europe ; Dasornis, from the London Clay 

 of Sheppey and Diatryma from the Eocene of New Mexico. 



All these facts go to show that the northern hemisphere 

 from remote times has been inhabited by a very rich and 

 varied bird-fauna. And thence, in all probability, this fauna 

 gradually spread southwards. The Penguins seem to be the 

 only group of importance which has had a southern origin, and 

 no species appear ever to have wandered north of the Equator. 



That Africa and South America were at one period joined 

 by a land bridge there is but little room for doubt, but this 

 connection was probably between the westernmost portion of 



