48 VERTEBRATAo 



Sheppey. " Comparisons of the ornitholites of the Eocene Tertiaries 

 (says Owen) show that the following ordinal modifications of this class 

 of Birds were at that period represented : the raptorial, hy species of 

 the size of our ospreys, buzzards and smaller falcons, and most probably 

 also by an owl ; the insessorial, by species seemingly allied to the nut- 

 hatch and the lark ; the scansorial, by species as large as the cuckoo 

 and king-fisher ; the rasorial, by a species of small quail ; the cursorial, 

 by a species as large as, but with thicker legs than, an ostrich; the 

 grallatorial, by a curlew of the size of the ibis, and by species allied to 

 Scolopax, Tringa and Pelidna, of the size of our woodcock, lapwings 

 and sanderlings ; and the natatorial, by species allied to the cormorant, 

 but one of them of larger size, though less than the pelican ; also, by a 

 species akin to the Divers.''" 



Ornithic remains become more abundant as we approach the present 

 era, especially in the Miocene strata, so richly developed in France. 

 Indications of every Order, except the great Cursores, have been ob- 

 served in that formation, — those of Waders being most numerous. 



The Pliocene marls at Monte Bolca furnish impressions of feathers, 

 and the Pleistocene clay of England has yielded a fossil humerus re- 

 sembling that of the wild goose. But most of the ornitholites of the 

 recent Tertiary are confined to bone-caverns. They belong to Birds 

 resembling the falcon, wood-pigeon, lark, thrush and teal. 



The most extraordinary additions to the paleontology of this Class 

 have been obtained from New Zealand — an island remarkable for pos- 

 sessing but one indigenous land-mammal, and but a few diminutive rep- 

 tiles. Colossal Birds, ranging from three to ten feet in height, akin to 

 the Ostrich but tridactyle and tetradactyle, have left remains in the 

 recent Alluvium. 



No. 184. Didus ineptus. 



Head. The Dodo has been 

 extirpated and become one of 

 the extinct fossil forms, within 

 the last 150 years. At the 

 beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, it abounded in Mauri- 

 tius and adjacent islands. One 

 was exhibited alive in London 

 in 1638, as a great curiosity. 

 Now the only known relics 

 that remain are the head and 

 foot of an individual in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, the leg of 

 another in the British Museum, and a skull in the Eoyal Museum at Copenhagen. 

 It was an aberrant form of the Pigeon family, as determined by the researches of 



