FOSSIL BIRDS. 
359 
the sepyornis ( JEpifornis ) of Madagascar, and its enormous eggs, 
capable of bolding two gallons of water. These and the recently 
extinct moa (Mod), and notornis ( Notornis Mantelli), of New 
Zealand, are sufficient to show the interest of the relics from 
alluvial strata, and the necessity of a better knowledge of their 
contents. The search after the early traces of Man will no 
doubt be ere long prolific in results to the naturalist, as well 
as to the anthropologist ; and the knowledge of the animals and 
plants with which the pristine races of our kind were sur- 
rounded will be a subject of the greatest interest. 
The above enumeration gives all the cases of bird-remains 
from every part of the world that are at present known ; and 
as it is the full account of a whole class of animals, it shows 
very decisively the positive imperfections of the geological 
record as at present eliminated. 
When Darwin first made the bold assertion that there were 
great gaps in the geological history, there was some disposition in 
scientific quarters to meet his assertion with scornful denial. 
Geologists had so prided themselves on what they had done, that 
they had never thought about what had been left undone; and 
it was soon found when reflection was turned to the subject that 
it was impossible for such 
a statement to be gainsaid. 
Attention has now been 
forcibly drawn to the fossil 
remains of this particular 
class by the discovery of 
an extraordinary bird in 
the lithographic slates of 
Pappenheim. This crea- 
ture, so beautifully pre- 
served that even the im- 
pressions of the feathers 
in the stone are retained, 
was first made known to 
the world as a supposed 
“ feathered reptile,” and 
has been lately purchased 
for the British Museum, 
and admirably described 
by Professor Owen. (Pig. 
14.) As accounts of this 
extraordinary fossil have 
appeared in almost every 
daily and weekly journal, we need do no more than briefly 
refer to its prominent points, and the history of its dis- 
covery. In 1861, M. Andreas Wagner communicated te 
