MEMOTRS 
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VOI, Mk eee NO. 3. 
FOSSIL AVIAN REMAINS FROM ARMISSAN. 
By C. R. Hasrman. 
The history of gallinaceous birds is traceable as far back as the Middle Eocene, 
the earliest known genus being found in the Green River limestone of Wyoming. 
This is known by a single, nearly perfect skeleton, and seems to be closely related 
to the existing Ortalis. From the Upper Eocene of the Paris Basin have been de- 
scribed two species of Palxortyx, which comprise small pheasant-like birds, with the 
rostrum longer and less curved than in modern forms. Certain fragments occurring 
in the Querey Phosphorites (Upper Eocene), and the calcareous marl of Vaucluse, 
supposed to be of equivalent age, are likewise referred to Palxortyx, and several 
species are also known from the Miocene of Southern France. The remarkable 
and highly specialized Hoactzin, or Opisthocomus, of South America, whose habits 
and certain points of structure suggest considerable affinity with the Cucwli, is rep- 
resented by a closely similar genus (Fi/holornis) in the Phosphorites of Quercy. 
The fresh-water limestone of Armissan, near Narbonne (Aude), by some geolo- 
gists regarded as of Upper Eocene, by others as of Oligocene age, has furnished re- 
mains of a single genus (Twoperdix), which agrees somewhat closely with modern 
pheasants ; and Phasianuws itself occurs rather abundantly in the Middle and Upper 
Miocene, and also in the Lower Pliocene of Pikermi, where it is accompanied by 
Gallus. A species of fossil turkey (Meleagris antiquus) is known from the White 
River Oligocene of Colorado, the same genus being also represented in the Pleisto- 
cene of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and probably elsewhere in this country. Under 
the name of Palxoperdix, three species of fossil pheasants have been described from 
the Middle Miocene of Sansan (Gers). Gallus and Phasianus appear to be the only 
known Pliocene genera, but from the Pleistocene and cavern deposits of various 
