FLOOE.] 
FOSSILS. 
35 
Crocodilus Spenceri from Dr. Buckland. The most gigantic Crocodilian 
remains hitherto found are those from the Siwalik Hills, they include 
examples both of the true Crocodiles and of the long and slender- 
snouted Gavials. 
The Eeptilian series is here interrupted by a collection of Bird re- 
mains, which occupy the Wall Case Xo. 11 at the end of the room. 
With the exception of the eggs, and portions of leg-bones of an 
extinct wingless bird from Madagascar (the JEpyornis maximus), 
the contents of this Case are all from New Zealand, and were found 
in a deposit which there are good, grounds for regarding as of very 
recent origin. Part of the series was collected by Mr. Percy Earl, in 
the Middle Island, and the remainder by Mr. Walter Mantell and others, 
in the North Island. These Bird remains are referred by Professor 
Owen to several species, and, indeed, to distinct genera of birds, 
some of which are still living in Xew Zealand, whilst others are, 
most probably, extinct. Amongst the living species may be noticed 
lie Xotornis Mqntetti, a very large species of the Bail family. The 
rst indication of this bird was given by some fragments of the 
skull found with remains of other birds, in superficial deposits of 
Xew Zealand, by Mr. W. Mantell. The living bird was subse- 
quently discovered by Mr. Mantell in the middle island of New 
Zealand, and the specimen which he obtained is deposited in the 
iuseurm* The greater portion of the bones, as determined by Pro- 
jssor Owen, belongs to a genus of birds to which the Professor has 
applied the name Dinornis: the birds of this genus were wingless, of 
rge size, and some of gigantic proportions. The Dinornis giganteus 
[of which there are numerous parts of the skeleton in the collection) 
est have been from ten to eleven feet in height. In the D. ele~ 
'■■ant opus the bones of the legs are as thick as those of the D. gigan- 
us ; but they are much shorter. In this Case are also placed two legs of 
- i equally large kind (Dinornis rubustus) allied to the last-mentioned 
id ; bones of a leg of a still larger species (Dinornis maximus); and, in 
a square glass-case near, is an entire skeleton of the D. elepliantopus. 
"all Case Xo. 11 also contains the remarkable long-tailed Bird 
ora Solenhofen (the ArchcEopteryx macrura of Prof. Owen). The 
•ties of the wings, the blade-bone and furculum, or "merry-thought," 
ie bones of the legs and feet, are those of the bird-class ; but the 
11 is long and many-jointed, with a pair of feathers to each joint; 
ese and the quill feathers and " under-coverts" of the wings are 
lutifully exemplified by impressions left in the peculiarly fine-grained 
lithographic' 1 limestone in which this unique specimen of a bird of 
6 Oolitic, or Mesozoic period, has been fossilized. 
To return to the Eeptilian remains. The series is continued in, and 
or, Wall Case 1, where, in a large slab of Purbeck stone, from 
manage, is imbedded a considerable portion of the skeleton of the 
Swanage Crocodile," Goniopholis crassidens. 
Here also are deposited the Pterodactyles, or Flying Lizards from 
] Lias and Oolites of England and Bavaria. Other specimens of 
* It will be found in the Bird Gallery. — See Case Xo. 133. 
D 2 
