50 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
These characters ought never to supersede descriptions, but should 
rather be superadded. And it is suggested that, henceforth, defini- 
tions might be made more sure if the dental formula were given 
with each new species or genus described. And, by way of illustra- 
tion, annexed is a notice of the new genus Atalanta. 
Atnlanta has but one species, and is founded on the Astarte Hart- 
weUiensis of Sowerby. Observing on it a posterior area like that in 
Cyprina, and which also occurs in some species of Astarte, which 
show rudiments of lateral teeth, I was led to suspect that if this shell 
were an Astarte at all, it also might have lateral teeth. Accordingly, 
as there was no lack of specimens, I broke up many examples, and 
1' • 2 • 1'' 
succeeded in finding the hinge, which is (i i)< • i • \i '■> differing 
from Astarte in having on each side well-developed lateral teeth. 
The long teeth give it a certain resemblance to Corbicula or Mactra, 
which it also resembles in liaving the lateral teeth transversely 
striated with age. The ligament is short, but very prominent. The 
pallial line was not to be traced. Astarte is probably its nearest re- 
.ative. 
FOSSIL BIEDS. 
By the Editor. 
{Continued from page 24.) 
We shall, we trust, be pardoned for returning in this number, be- 
fore we proceed onwards to Cuvier's works, to some omissions of old 
autliors which have occurred. 
The first of these additional quotations is from Scheuchzer's later 
work, published at Zurich in 1718, ' Meteorologia et Orvctographia 
Helvetica,' p. 33G. 
" DiLUViAN Birds. — Everybody can very easily conceive that all 
the birds, owing to their agility, could have escaped the waters of the 
Deluge, and it is therefore not to be wondered that even in the 
richest and best-assorted museums of arts and natural history, re- 
mains of the bird-kind are very seldom to be met with, or that they 
are, so to say, scarcer than a white raven. In Switzerland I have as 
yet found nothing ; from the quarry of Oeniugen I can show a well- 
impressed bird's feather, which I have reproduced on page 14 of the 
Querel. Pise." This figure we give in our Plate IV. fig. 1. 
The original passage follows below : — 
" AvES DiLUViAN^.— Es kan ein jeder ohnschwer begreifen, dass die 
Yogel, wegen ihrer Leichte, alle warden in denen Siindfluth-Wassern oben 
aufgeschwummen seyn, und sich desshalb niclit zu verwundern, wann 
auch in denen best-versehenen Kunst- und aturalien-Kammern etwas von 
dam Vogal-Geschlacht iibarbliebenes so saltsam oder noch rarer ist als ein 
