The earliest indications of the existence of birds are certain foot tracks discovered by Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst, in the Triassic or New Red Argillaceoua Sandstones of the valley of the Connecticut River. These foot-prints occur in considerable numbers in the district mentioned, and have been described by geologists under the name of Ornithicnites. A slab on which these remarkable markings are to be seen is in the collection of the British Museum. They evidently belong to birds of a large size, but unfortunately none of the remains of the creatures to which they belong have yet been discovered. Sir Charles Lyell has recently examined the district in which these impressions occur, and agrees with Professor Hitchcock in regarding them as the production of the feet of birds.
Some remains found by Dr. Mantell in the Wealden Strata of Tilgato Forest, were supposed by Baron Cuvier and Professor Owen to belong to a species of wading bird, but subsequent investigations have shown that these specimens were portion of the skeleton of a species of Pterodactyl A microscopic examination however by Mr. Bowerbank and Professor Quckett of specimens since discovered by Dr. Mantel', has led these gentleman to conclude that they belong to birds, leading to the inference that these animals did exist at the period of the deposit of the Wealden Beds.
In the British Fossil Mammals and Birds' Professor Owen has described the remains of a gigantic bird obtained by the Earl of Enniakillcn from the Chalk near Maidstoue. The portion described is regarded by Professor Owen as the shaft of the humerus,' and he concludes that it belonged to a bird closely allied to the Albatross of the present day. He has named it Cimoliornis Diomedeus.
As we approach nearer the historic period of the earth's surface, the remains of the bones of birds become more decisive and more numerous. In most of the ancient Tertiary Strata remains of several genera of birds occur. In the Sevalik hills of India they are associated with the remains of several species of proboscidiform animals. In the basin of Paris they have been found in conjunction with the bones of the Palwotherium, ke. In the Tertiary deposits of Auvergne they have also been found, and the ossiferous caverns of the continent of Europe and of Great Britain have presented the bones of numerous species of animals now living, with here and there an extinct species. These remains however have been sufficiently scarce to be greatly prized by the collectors of fossils.
Ig the year 1839 Professor Owen received from Mr. Rule a specimen of the femur of a gigantic bird, allied to the ostrich and other struthious birds now in existence. To the bird to which this bone
belonged Professor Owen gave the name of Dinornis. [Disroasts.] This specimen was obtained from New Zealand, and was quickly followed by a large collection of the bones of other extinct birds, made by Mr. Walter Mantel' of Wellington, son of the late Dr. Gideon Mantel]. In this collection, not only were there the bones of Dinornis, confirming all the anticipations which had been formed by Professor Owen of this gigantic bird, but also the remains of several other species of Dinornis, and other genera. The character of some of these remains, and their having been found in fire-heaps in conjunction with human bones, and allusions in the traditions and songs of the natives, lead to the undoubted conclusion that within the historic period the Dinornis, under the name of was known to the Maoris, the native inhabitants of Now Zealand. Amongst the remains is that of a genus called Notornis; and during his excursions into the interior for the purpose of ascertaining if any of these birds still existed, Mr. W. Mantel' had the good fortune to capture a living specimen. [Ncrrottxxs.] This bird has been described and figured by Mr. Gould in his Birds of Australia,' and an engraving is also given by the late Dr. Mantell in his popular work descriptive of the organic remains of the British Museum, entitled Petrifaction and their Teachings.' From these facts we are led to conclude that long before New Zealand was inhabited by man it was densely peopled by colossal struthious birda, of which the Aptery.s [ArrEnYx], Brachyptery.s [BRACIUYPTERTX1 and Notornis are but the degenerate representatives. It is probable also that Now Zealand, together with Chatham Island, Norfolk Island, and others, are but the mountain-tops of a continent, which was probably covered with these creatures, presenting a remark able feature in the history of the earth's surface, and affording inter esting matter for speculation with regard to the progression of organised life upon the globe.
The history of the New Zealand birds is also one of special interest in connection with a group of birds, some of which also, as the Dodo and Solitaire [Dopo], have existed within the historic period, but are now no longer to be found, and which had their principal seat of existence in the Mauritius.
(Anted, Geology ; Owen, British Fossil 3fammals and Birds ; Owen, Transactions of the Zoological Society, 1839, 1844, 1846, 1843, 1850 ; Colenso, Annals of Natural History ; Mantell, Petrifaction and their Teachings ; Strickland and Melville, The Dodo and its Kindred.)