92 



Ares — Dasornis, Gastomis, etc. 



Table-case, 

 No. 13. 



Professor 0. C. Marsh, F.G.S., to whom we are indebted for 

 the series of casts. An engraving of the entire skeleton is 

 placed near this case on the right hand side of the window. The 

 originals are preserved in Yale College Museum, New Haven, 

 Connecticut, United States (see Fig. 113). 



Along with this remarkable form of toothed wingless bird, 

 the Hesperomis, there has been found another, named by Marsh, 

 Ichthyomis (Fig. 114), which had well-developed powerful 

 wings and a strongly keeled sternum. Its jaws were armed 

 with teeth, placed in distinct sockets, and its vertebrae, unlike 

 those of other birds, were biconcave, as is the case in a few recent 

 and in many extinct reptiles. This character alone unmis- 

 takably indicates a great antiquity for the Class of Birds. 



The next oldest birds whose remains are preserved in this 

 case are from the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey (Lower 

 Eocene). 



Fig. 115. — Skull of Odontopteryx toliapicus (Owen), a bird from tlie London Clay of Sheppey 

 with serrated mandibles ; probably a fish-eating bird, like the Merganser. .. _ | 



Dasornis, 



Arglllornis, 



etc. 



G-astornis. 



Gastornis 



Klaasseni. 



One of these, Dasornis londiniensis, represented by a single 

 imperfect skull, was as large as an ostrich. Another (Argil- 

 lomis longipennis) rivalled the albatross in size. A third 

 (Odontopteryx toliapicus) had a powerfully serrated bill, well 

 adapted for seizing its fishy prey (see Fig. 115). There are 

 also remains of a Vulture (Lithornis vulturinus) , and of Hal- 

 ey omis toliapicus, a little bird, probably allied to the kingfisher. 



Here are placed the casts of the femur and tibia of Gastornis 

 parisiensis, from the Lower Eocene of Meudon, near Paris ; 

 also casts of two leg-bones of another equally large bird 

 allied to the above, discovered in the Lower Eocene (Woolwich 

 Beds), Park Hill, near Croydon, and described by Mr. E. T. 

 Newton* under the name of Gastornis Klaasseni. They indicate 

 a genus of birds as large as an ostrich, but more robust and 

 with affinities to the Anserine type. 



* "Trans. Zool. Soc," yoI. xii., p. 143, pis. xxriii.. xxix. (1886). 



