BIRDS WITH TEETH. 
339 
extinct Dodo, Solitaire, Aphanapteryx , r giant gallinule, parrots, 
&c., mark the last representatives of the terrestrial fauna of a 
once extensive continent, now submerged save the islands of 
Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Bourbon. But the majority of 
these, like the extinct wingless birds of New Zealand, the Di- 
nornis , with the Apatornis clefossor (Owen), the Notornis 
Mantelli (Owen), the great extinct goose, Cnemiornis cal - 
citrans * * * § (Owen), and the gigantic penguin, Palceeudyptes 
antarcticus f (Huxley, discovered by Dr. Hector), and an ex- 
tinct gigantic bird of prey, the Harpagornis Moorei, Haast,J 
may have lived down to the time of man’s advent ; nor do 
they offer any remarkable peculiarities which might justify 
their separation from existing birds. 
Formerly the remains of a u longipennate natatorial bird, 
equalling the albatross in size,” § were recorded from the chalk 
of Burham, near Maidstone ; but these relics are now referred 
to Pterodactylus giganteus , the largest and the last form of 
flying reptile known in the history of the crust of this earth. || 
Among the numerous fragmentary vertebrate remains from 
the Cambridge greensand — a formation most extensively worked 
for phosphate of lime for artificial manure — the late Mr. Lucas 
Barrett in 1858 discovered the remains of a bird rather larger 
than the common pigeon, and probably belonging to the order 
Natatores , and, like most of the gull tribe, having well-deve- 
loped wings. Portions of the metacarpus, metatarsus, tibia, 
and femur have been detected, and the determinations of Mr. 
Lucas Barrett have been confirmed by Professor Owen. If 
That the existence of birds at the period of the formation 
of the Secondary rocks should have been first made known by 
their footprints may seem strange; but as far back as 1835 a 
notice appeared in Silliman’s “American Journal of Science” 
of the discovery by Dr. Deane of impressions resembling tlie 
feet of birds upon some slabs of New Red Sandstone from the 
Connecticut Valley in the United States. 
Prof. Hitchcock was the first who submitted these tracks to 
a careful scientific investigation, and he concluded that they 
* “ Trans. New Zealand Inst.” 1874, vol. vi. p. 76, pi. x-xiii. 
t Op. cit. 1872, vol. iv. p. 341, pi. xvii. and xviii. 
% Op. cit. 1874, vol. vi. p. 62, pi. vii. and viii. 
§ “Geol. Trans.” 1840, 2nd series, vol. vi. p. 411. 
|| Owen’s “ Palaeontology,” 2nd edition, 1861, p. 275. 
^1 Lyell’s “ Manual,” 6th edition, 1865, p. 330. By an error, Mr. Lucas 
Barrett, F.G.S., figures in Lyell’s “Elements” as “ M . Louis Barrett.” 
Barrett was horn in London, and was for some time curator of the Wood- 
wardian Museum, and afterwards appointed Director of the Geological 
Survey of the West Indies, where he was unfortunately drowned. 
