MACKIE — ON FOSSIL BIRDS. 



423 



France. Moreover, according to Albinus, p. 105, it is said, that the 

 image of the Pontiff was adorned with a triple crown, and the ponti- 

 fical robes were of tissue made of gold-like and purple thread, and 

 the human eyes, ears, and nostrils, distinctly shown ; the figure of 

 the Pontiff sitting in a splendid chair, raising his right hand, on which 

 even a jewel (St. Peter's ring) could be observed.* 

 The original text is : — 



" Ecce enim Caud;e avis vel Hemigem pennam in Lapide fissili Onin- 

 gensi conspicuam, unicum, quod hactenus fit cognitum ex Volucrium Regno 

 superstes nionumentum. Excipite Galium Gallinaceum, cujus meminit 

 Agric.4,x. _Fo.s,9.p.371, juxta Pontificiis Homani barbati et triplicem coronam 

 in capite habentes effigiem, de cujus tamen existentia merito dubitatur, quan- 

 doquidem in Actis Publici Eislebiensibus ne minima quidem fiat mentio, 

 teste CI. Dn. Gothofr., Mylio Memorab. Saxon. Subterran. p. 5, fieri autem 

 debuisset Lapidis et non longe post Reformationem, anno nimirum 1539 

 eruti, dono dati primum Luthero postea Francisco I. Galliarum Regi ; 

 prsesertim si, quod Albinis scribit p. 105, Pontificis effigies ad fuit 

 ornata triplici corona et veste Pontificiali, aureis quasi filis et purpura con- 

 texta, os, oculos, et nares Jiominis, referens, in sella splendida sedens, de- 

 nique dextram manum sublevans, inqnam tanquam gemmam contemplans 

 intuebatur." 



It is difficult to know what Mylius (1709) means in the following 

 passage : — 



" I am bound to mention also that in the same quarry (Illmenau), 

 a few years ago, a model has been discovered, which presented a hen" 

 very distinctly reproduced, and which is the more remarkable as 

 even the intestines of the hen were imprinted." 



He follows these remarks with others about fish-remains, which 

 are more likely to have been true fossils : — 



" Ich muss auch ferner mitberiihren, dass eben in diesem Wercke, vor 

 wenigen Jahren noch, eine Niere, in welcher eine Henne ganz deutlich 

 abgebildet war, gefunden worden, so um desswillen remarquabel, dass 

 dieses Bergwerck diese Henne in seinen innersten Eingeweide expri- 

 miret."f 



Buttner, in his £ Eudera Diluvii Testes' (1710), says that "near 

 Lubeck, there was once discovered a petrified branch of a tree, together 

 with a bird's nest. A petrified twig, very nicely formed, is also shown 

 in the Museum of Arts at Florence." 



Further on is another passage: — "To this happy circumstance 

 (i. e. a communication from the Pastor Webel) I owe also a confirmed 

 assurance respecting a bird's nest discovered there (i. e. near Kindel- 

 briick, in Thuringia), together with four or five white eggs (like 

 quails' eggs), and a stone four yards round, J which was very firm, 

 and a figure of which was shown to me by another friend, as repre- 

 sented on plate xxi. fig. vi." (see PI. XXII. Fig. 3, nobis). 



* In the British Museum copy the plate containing the figure of the bird from 

 CEningen is wanting. 



t Mylius, ' Memorabilium Saxoime Subterranese,' Leipzig, 1709, p. 47. 

 £ Literally, " 4 Ellen starckT 



