208 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



ornitliolite from Montmartre, of the family Gallinacece (v.), showing the 

 under-beak, its right ramus nearly entire, portions of both sides of the 

 base of the cranium, vertebrse of neck, right clavicle, and parts of the left, 

 small portion of the omoplate, the sternum much crushed and disfigured, 

 and an equally disfigured impression of the pelvis, the tibia, and many 

 other intelligible parts ; 28, the four phalanges of a medius of a bird of 

 prey, like their analogues in the buzzard (ii.) ; 29, lower mandible ; 30, a 

 ' frog-bone ' (junction of the two clavicles) ; 31, coracoid bone ; 32, another 

 coracoid ; 33, metacarpal and phalanges ; 34, inferior mandible of a bird 

 (v.) ; 35, humerus (v. ?) ; 36, another humerus ; 37, small humerus of (x.) 

 and 38, leg and foot of the same species, No. 33 ; 39, small bird's foot 

 (ix. ?) ; 40, metacarpal of bird of prey of large size, and with long wings of 

 the dimensions of the bald-buzzard, probably the same species as No. 24 

 (xi.) ; 41, another metacarpal of a bird of prey, much smaller, and having 

 much shorter wings, probably of the same species as No. 48 ; 42, skeleton 

 from Montmartre (ix.),the wing extended, humerus nearly entire, sternum 

 crushed, feet and right leg well shown, as are also other bones ; 43, well- 

 preserved and characteristic skeleton from Montmartre, of the same 

 species (ix.) as the foregoing, showing the head and beak, portion of 

 the 'frog-bone,' back-bone, ribs, wing-bones, legs and feet, and other 

 parts, very little disturbed from their natural condition ; 43, mutilated 

 humerus of a singular species, and like that of the screech-owl ; 44, ra- 

 dius ; 45, well-preserved foot ; 46, badly-preserved foot of same species as 



No. 11 (7.)." 



It will be seen then that Cuvier founds on these bird-remains no 

 fewer than ten species. His first on the foot, described by him 

 in 1800, in which the thumb or hind-toe is wanting (No. 10) ; but we 

 see in the specimen the little bone, which carries it in many birds. 

 These characters are much more complete in No. 8 ; the femur in 

 that specimen is wanting, but the tibia is much more entire, and the 

 thumb and the three other digits are very complete, and furnished 

 with all the articulations they ought to have ; the foot of this speci- 

 men having the tibia and tarsus a little longer than the first, is made 

 another species by Cuvier. Of M. de Lametherie's specimen, Cuvier 

 makes a third species; of M. Elluin's a fourth; of the foot No. 15, 

 which he thinks somewhat smaller than the last, a fifth ; of No. 38 a 

 sixth ; of the four phalanges forming the medius of a bird of prey, 

 No. 28, allied to the buzzard, a seventh ; of the phalange of the great 

 bird, No. 14, an eighth ; and of the small foot, No. 39, a ninth 

 species, all founded on the debris of the walking limbs alone. He 

 founds three other species on the beaks in Nos. 5, 29, 39, respectively. 

 We can scarcely analyse further Cuvier's work without giving ad- 

 ditional figures, which our fast-closing limits will not allow. We can 

 therefore only add that our Plates give examples of — No. 43 (PI. III., 

 fig. 1) ; No. 42 (PI, VI., fig. 3) ; No. 41 (PI. VI., fig. 2) ; No. 39 

 (PI. VI., fig. 1) ; No. 25 (PI. VI., fig. 4) ; Nc. 20, anterior and pos- 

 terior views (PL VI., fig. 5) ; No. 15 (PI. VI., fig. 7) ; No. 13 a 

 (PI. VI., fig. 6) ; No. 13 b (PI. IV., fig. 2) ; and regret being cut off 

 in the middle of our survey of the bibliography and present state 

 of ornithological palaeontology, the only manageable portion for any- 



