MACKIE — ON FOSSIL BIRDS. 
415 
of France, should not be met with in this countiy ; 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 Xeocomian and Greensand strata. 
Lower Neocomian. — Terehratula tamarindus, T. 2)sendo-jurensis^ 
T. prceloTiga, T. faha* T. Moreana, T. Carteroniana,'\ T. CoUinaria.f 
T. Marcousana, T. semistriata, T. hippopus, Terehratella ollonga, 
T. reticulata, T. Neocomiensis, TerehratuUna hiaiiriculata, Terehri- 
rostra Neocomiensis. 
Upper Neocotnian or Urgonian. — Terehratula hippopus, T. di- 
fhyoicles, T. JSIoutoniana, T. sella. 
Aptian. — Terehratula Moutoniana, T. sella, Terehratella Asteriana. 
Lower Greensand (England). — Terehratula tamarindus, T. prce- 
longa, T. Celtica, T. sella, Terehratella ohlonga, to which I now add 
T. Moutoniana and T. depressa. 
FOSSIL BIEDS. 
By the Editor. 
The wonderful remains of the Archaeopteryx, recently acquired 
for the 13ritish Museum, have naturally drawn attention to a niucli- 
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 daring 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. 
AVith 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. faba of Sowei is merely 
a variety of T. hiplicata confined to Upper Greensand strata. 
t T. Carteroniana and T. Collinaria appear to have been regarded in this country as 
forms of T. selln. 
