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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
summit are — to judge from the features of the detached blocks — related to 
the chalk formation. It is placed in the centre of a large area, situate a 
little to the east of the line of the Andes, from which it is separated by a 
valley in which the Rio de Mendoza rises. Some syenitic rocks are found 
in the lower portion of the area which at the period of M. Pissis’s visit was 
covered with snow. 
Fossil Birds of the Miocenes of Central France. — M. Milne-Edwards, 
having compared the bird-remains of these deposits, has presented a note 
to the “Academie” upon their identification and arrangement. He thus dis- 
tributes them : — Diurnal Raptores : Two species of eagles, one which has 
been described by M. Gervais, and which the author terms A. Gervaisii ; 
the other styled A. prisca. Nocturnal Raptores : Bubo Poirrieri, B. 
arvensis, and Strix antiqua. Grallatores : Totanus Lartetianus, Phoeni- 
copterus Croizeti, Palaelodus ambiguus, P. crassipes, and P. gracilipes. 
Natatores : Anas Blanchardii, Larus Desnoyersii, Pelicanus gracilis, and 
Graculus littoralis. 
Cause of the Striae on Fossil Bones. — M. Eugene Robert, in reply to the 
memoir of M. Desnoyers, states his belief that all the grooves, gashes, and 
scratches which the latter attributed to the action of the flint weapons 
used by an early race of men, have been produced by the implements of 
the artisans employed in extracting, and afterwards preparing, the fossils. 
His attention was first directed to this origin by a remark of a person 
engaged in the French School of Mines, to the effect that these markings 
were due to the awkwardness of those who removed the earth from the 
specimens. In one instance he was able (from the character of the 
injury) to infer, that the mark had been produced by a workman’s 
pickaxe. 
Geology of the Pyrenees. — It is not invariably the case that a palaeonto- 
logical examination of a series of rocks confirms all the deductions drawn 
from a stratigraphical survey. This, however, is true in the instance of 
these mountains’ geology. M. A. Nogues, after making a lithological and 
stratigraphical survey of the Pyrenean rocks, was enabled to divide their 
primary sedimentary deposits into two groups, an upper and a lower. The 
latter, essentially schistose, and more or less metamorphic, he called 
Silurian ; the upper, principally calcareous, he called Devonian. The 
fossiliferous portion of this latter lies chiefly in the valley of Tech between 
Corneilla and Fillols. The beds are of a yellowish grey colour, and 
contain impressions of Stromatopora concentrica, Fenestrella antiqua, 
Favosites polymorpha, Berenicia . . . ., and Terebratula pugnus ; a 
fauna which leaves little doubt as to the true character of the formation. 
The Vertebrosternal Articulation of the Glyptodon. — The cause of the 
development of this peculiar joint in the remarkable edentate referred to, is 
being sought for by M. Serres. He asserts that the existence of the articu- 
lation offers no support to the Darwinian hypothesis, and adduces the 
following arguments (which to our mind are rather of the “petitio 
principii” variety than otherwise) in support of his opinions : —The 
repetition of the act of flexion, by which the head is drawn beneath the 
carapace, would of itself be inadequate to the production of a vertebral 
articulation. This is seen by reference to the common instances furnished 
