MACKIE — ON FOSSIL BIRDS. 



415 



of France, should not be met with in this country ; and it is to be 

 hoped that careful search will bring some of them to light to fill up 

 the vacant spaces in our lists of species. The following are the 

 species of Terebratulidae, identified by M. D'Orbigny in France, and by 

 Mr. T. Davidson in England, from jNeocomian and Greensand strata. 



Lower Neocomian. — Terebratula tamarindus, T. pseudo-jurensis, 

 T. prcelonga, T. faba* T. Moreana, T. Carteroniana,^ T. Collinaria,f 

 T. Marcousana, T. semistriata, T. hippopus, Terebratella oblonga, 

 T. reticulata, T. Neoeomiensis, Terebratulina biauriculata, Terebri- 

 rostra Neocomiensis. 



Upper Neocomian or Urgonian. — Terebratula hippopus, T. di- 

 phgoides, T. Moutoniana, T. sella. 



Aptian. — Terebratula Moutoniana, T. sella, Terebratella Aster iana. 



Lower Greensand (England). — Terebratula tamarindus, T. prce- 

 longa, T. Celtica, T sella, Terebratella oblonga, to which I now add 

 T. Moutoniana and T. depressa. 



FOSSIL BIEDS. 

 By the Editor. 



The wonderful remains of the Archseopteryx, recently acquired 

 for the British Museum, have naturally drawn attention to a much- 

 neglected department of palaeontology ; and it will therefore not only 

 be interesting, but useful also to the advance of science, to pass under 

 review, at the present time, the state of our knowledge of the former 

 existence of birds during past geological ages. The early authors, 

 for the most part, speak not of fossil bird-remains properly so called, 

 but in reality of mere incrustations by " petrifying springs," of the 

 fanciful tracery of dendritic markings, or the imagined resemblances 

 of oddly-formed stones. Thus Albertus Magnus, in his book'De 

 Mineralibus,' printed in 1495, describes a fossil nest, with eggs, on the 

 branch of a tree. This might or might not be a true fossil, but our re- 

 cent discoveries of fossil birds and reptiles' eggs, and the knowledge 

 we have now of delicate objects truly fossilized, such as insects, 

 fruits, flowers, and feathers, renders it possible that some of the old 

 records of such may have had a foundation of truth, and gives a pro- 

 bability that some at least may be brought within the capacity of be- 

 lief as actual facts. 



With this view, we shall quote from the old authors all the passages 

 known to us, commenting on them as occasion may require ; and in 

 thus working up the bibliography of fossil ornithology and arranging 



* The shell to which M. D'Orbigny has erroneously applied Sowerby's name of 

 T.faba, is identical with the T. Celtica of Morris. The T. j'aba of Sowei by is merely 

 a variety of T. biplicata confined to Upper Greensand strata. 



t T. Carteroniana and T. Collinaria appear to have been regarded in this country as 

 forms of T. sella. 



