MACKIE— ON rOSaiL BIRDS. 
445 
FOSSIL BIEDS. 
By the Editoe. 
{Continued from page 424.) 
The tliick folio book of Athanasius Kircher is an extraordinary 
one iu many respects, and chiefly in respect to the numerous subjects 
it treats of, and tlie number of its woodcut illustrations. Eough as 
these are, they give us a better idea than mere descriptions of the 
objects he speaks about. Like other of these old authors, he copies a 
great deal from his predecessors and contemporaries ; indeed one gets 
wearied of this eternal copying by these, for the most part, old doctor- 
naturalists, and of the endless cross-references from one to another. 
Still, for our purpose, which is to give all the literature on the sub- 
ject, we must submit some few more extracts from old books. 
The title of Kircher's book is ' Mundi Subterranei,'* and the first 
reference we meet with is, in Tom. ii. lib. viii. de Lapidibus, sect. 1, 
cap. ix. p. 34, fig. " avium iu lapidibus expressio," — of birds expressed 
•on stone. (See A^ol. VJL PI. IE. Fig. 0.) 
We next come to numerous figures of other " flying creatures" at 
p. 35, etc. Tab. L is headed, " Figur^e Voluchum, quas Natura in 
lapidibus depinxit, ex variis Museis decerptae et aliunde transmissfe." 
" Figures of winged creatures, painted by nature on stones, taken 
from various museums, and otherwise transmitted." 
Then follows the descriptive translation below: — 
" The first figure represents a head of a Stork, together with some, 
but I do not know what, quadruped. At the top is something like a 
human face. Extracted from Aldobrandino"t (see PI. XXIIl. Fig. 1). 
"2. Shows various forms and parts of animals, winged creatures as 
well as quadrupeds, although very imperfect, the cause of which we 
give iu the physical examinations" (see PI. XXIIL Fig. 2). "3. Ee- 
presents the figures of two birds expressed by nature on marble in 
the church of St. George's, at Venice, referred to by Ambrosinus" 
(see Vol. VII. PL II. Figs. 3, 4). "4. Shows the head of an Owl, 
surrounded by rudiments of other birds" (see PI. XXIV. Fig, 2). 
*' 5. Eepresents the figure of a Wagtail, or as others prefer, of a 
Peacock " (PI. XXIV. Fig. 3). " 6. Shows the figure of a monstrous 
bird " (A^ol. VII. PI. II. Fig. 4). " 7. The figure of a Merle " (Vol. 
VII. Pi. II. Fig. 5). 
"Prima Figura notat Ciconice caput, et annexum ei nescioquid animalis 
* "Athauasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu i\Iuiicli Subterranei Tomns IIu3, in V. Libros di- 
gestus, quibus iMundi subterranei fructus cxponuutur, et quitlquid tandem raruni, iiisolitum 
et porteutosum in foccundo Naturrc utero coiitinetur, ante oculos pouitur curiosi Lectoris. 
" 'Os i/deis Kara navra fifpii K6(TfxoiQ ysvdpxa 
'Os Sairauas jxev ^.-xavra, /cat av^eis ifxiraXiv avTOVS. 
" Omncs qui partes habitas, mundique Genarcha, 
Absumis qui cuncta cadem, qui rursus adauges. 
• " Amstelodami, Ex OlJicina Janssonio-Waesbergiana, anno 1678."— Orpheus. 
+ The inscription uuder the tig. 1 {Ciconia et Noctua fgura) does not correspond 
with this explanation. 
