with near native villages, but it is by no means uncommon to find them 

 fur from any trace of Maori dwellings. I have never seen any human 

 bones in these, though from the former cannibal habits of the aborigines 

 of New Zealand, it might be anticipated that some human remains would 

 be found, and indeed on closer examination such may be discovered. 



These kitchen-heaps are composed chiefly of the shells of one species of 

 bivalve mollusk, called by the natives pi pi, which is still plentifully taken 

 and eaten, though not so much so as before the European occupation of 

 the country. The natives now have a better supply of animal food than 

 formerly, in the pigs, poultry, and oxen introduced by the Europeans, and 

 are not so dependent on the produce of the sea and rivers. 



This note may perhaps serve as a hint to some future traveller to ex- 

 amine more attentively than I did the shell-heaps formed of the debris of 

 Maori feasts. Useful comparisons may thus possibly be elicited between 

 these remains and the Kjdkkenmoddings of Denmark, and those found at 

 the Pileworks of Switzerland. R. Lechmeee Guppy. 



Trinidad, 29th November, 1862. 



Newfoundland. — The 'Canadian Naturalist and Geologist' for Oc- 

 tober contains " Observations on the Geology and Physical Characteristics 

 of Newfoundland," by the late President of the Natural History Society of 

 New Brunswick, M. H. Perley, Esq. The paper first gives a description 

 of the physical features of the island, and then reviews the former labours 

 of Mr. Jukes, adding to the statements of what was accomplished by him 

 the subsequent observations of the author himself. 



Gypsum is abundant at Cadroy, and a splendid white marble on the 

 Humber. Ores of copper have been found in several districts, and explo- 

 rations have been carried on by various parties, whose discoveries have not 

 yet been made public. An extensive deposit of lead has been found at 

 La Manche, in Placentia Bay, and worked for a short time by an American 

 company. 



J aws with Teeth in the A iicii v.oitf.uyx Seau.— In the counter- 

 part slab of the Arclueopteryx is a portion of bone with four or five teeth, 

 which has caused seme little excitement, under the idea that it might be 

 the jaw of that bird. Mr. Davies considers it the upper part of the head 

 of a lepidoid fish (maxillary bone), an opinion in which we are disposed to 

 concur, but at present we wish only to notice the fact, not having been 

 able to fully examine the case in time for publication in this number. We 

 Mould suggest a fair comparison of these teeth ami portion of jaw with 

 the corresponding parts in the various species of Pholidophorus and Lepi- 

 dotus, and we should be glad of the loan of good specimens for the pur- 

 pose — the specimens in the National Collection not being sufficiently per- 

 fect, as respects the head, for this special examination. 



Scotch Ceocodiles. — The following announcement appears in .a con- 

 temporary : — "A rumour, of which confirmation is promised, has reached 

 us. ihat the skeleton of a crocodile has been discovered in the old red sand- 

 stone in the neighbourhood of Elgin. If trae, it marks another epoch 

 in geological science, as the fossil remains hitherto found in that forma- 

 tion have been of creatures much lowei in the scale of organization." 

 We thought that the white sandstone near Elgin, long erroneously re- 

 garded as of Devonian age, had been proved to be A I est zoic, and that rep- 

 tiles apparently of some crocodilian affinities (Steganolepis) had already 

 been discovered therein. The assertion that the present rumour marks 

 another epoch in geological science" seems to us one of those premature 

 deductions which have been elsewhere 1 stigmatized as "the fabulous ex- 

 crescences of a credulous and gossiping zoology." 



VOL. VI. K 



