CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 8. NATATORES. 
353 
noticed the remains of the gigantic Epiornis of Madagascar, as well as those of other species of 
birds found on the island of Rodriguez. But all these are supposed to be of comparatively recent 
origin. The bones of birds of high geological antiquity have not been found in great numbers, 
probably because they are hollow and easily destroyed, and because, also, by their means of 
flight, birds have generally been able to escape those great convulsions of nature, such as floods, 
landshdes, &c., which have ingulfed the larger animals, whose bones are so abundant in the 
ancient deposits of soils and rocks. Their forms are also so light, that, aided by their feathers, 
they would naturally float on the surface of the waters, and thus decay and disappear. 
Nevertheless, in the tertiary deposits of India, France, and England, the bones of several genera 
^ of birds have been discovered. In the basin of 
Paris they have been met with in connection with 
the bones of the Palceothereum, &c. ; in the chalk- 
clifi"s near Maidstone, England, the remains of a 
gigantic species of Albatross have been found, to 
which Mr. Owen has given the name of Cimolior- 
nis Diomedeus. But although the bones of birds 
are thus deficient in the more ancient strata, their 
tracks have been discovered in various places in 
difi'erent countries, and under circumstances which 
prove that they must have been made thousands, 
perhaps millions of years ago. The most remark- 
able of these, or those which have been most 
thoroughly explored, ai'c in the valley of Connecti- 
cut River. Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst Col- 
lege, Massachusetts, first drew attention to these 
curious relics, and he has, in various publications, 
given the result of his researches in this rich geo- 
logical field. In 1858, in obedience to a public 
act, he made an elaborate report on the subject to 
the legislature of Massachusetts, which he entitles 
" Ichniology of New England." He here gives a 
great variety of details, and abundant plates, illus- 
trative of the remains of Avhich he treats, a copy 
of one of which Ave here insert. The general re- 
sult of these researches he states as follows : 
"Let us now take a synoptical view of the species of animals that once lived in the Connecti- 
cut valley, as made known by their tracks. As already stated again and again in describing 
them, I expect that future discoveries will strike out some of these species ; but my prediction 
is that they will bring a still larger number of new ones to light. 
POOT-PKINT OF BRONTOZOUJI GIGANTEUM — THE ORIGINAL 
EIGHTEEN INCHES LONG. 
Number of localities of tracks in the vallej thus far 
discovered 38 
Length of the sandstone-belt containing tracks, 90 miles 
Width " " " " 2orS " 
Whole number of species in the valley described 
above , 119 
Number of bipeds 31 
Number of quadrupeds 65 
With more than four feet 18 
Without proper feet 12 
With an uncertain number 3 
Marsupialoid animals 5 
Thick-toed birds 14 
Narrow-toed birds 17 
Ornithoid lizards or batrachians 10 
Lizards , 17 
Batrachians — the frog and salamander family 11 
Chelonians— the tortoise family 8 
Fishes 4 
Crustaceans, myriapods, and insects 18 
Annelids — the naked worms 8 
Of uncertain place 6 
What an amazing revelation is this ! Animals totally unlike any that now exist in these local- 
ities, and whose likeness is only found in living species amid the eccentricities of Australia, 
once lived and flourished here ! They were not only of strange forms — strange to these regions 
— ^but some of them strange to the world, and in some instances of enormous size. One of the 
YoL. II.— 46. 
