In a collection of bird-remains sent to Dean Buckland from North Island, New Zealand, in 1842, Professor Owen noticed a tibia which he regarded as belonging to a very small species of Dinornis, to which he gave the name Dinornis otidiformis. A few years afterwards further material showed that this bird was not Dinornithine at all, but was probably a gigantic flightless rail, and it was therefore referred to a new genus, Aptornis. Subsequently, on the evidence of a nearly perfect skull, considerably larger than that of A. otidiformis, a second species, A. defossor, was described, and it is to this larger form that the fine skeleton figured on Plate X belongs. The bones from which this specimen was reconstructed were found in 1889, by Mr. W. S. Mitchell, in a chasm in the Limestone at Castle Rocks. Southland, New Zealand; together with them occurred more or less complete skeletons of Harpagornis (both species), Notornis, a large species of Fulica, allied to that recently discovered by Dr. H. O. Forbes in the Chatham Islands, a small Ocydromus, Stringops, Anas, Apteryx, and also Anomalopteryx didina and A. didiformis. A very interesting account of the mode of occurrence of these remains has been given by Mr. A. Hamilton, to whose papers those interested may be referred for further information on this point. The same writer has also given a brief description, with numerous measurements, of the bones of the species with which we are now concerned. It appears that the more or less perfect skeletons of several individuals were found mingled with one another; and, although the greater number of the bones constituting the present specimen no doubt belonged to a single bird, the missing ones have been replaced by portions of the other skeletons.

During a short holiday spent last summer in the Eifel, I was much struck with the occurrence of an extremely vesicular, dark-green glass in the lava at Bertrich, the most southerly point of the district at which traces of volcanic action are to be met with. It lies in the valley of the Uessbach, a little stream that flows into the Alf, a tributary of the Moselle. In all probability the ground on which Bertrich now stands was at one time covered with lava, and if the course of the Uessbach be followed for about a mile and a half above the town, thick patches of it may be clearly seen on either side of the present bed of the stream, all traces of it ceasing higher up the valley. It is well exposed in a quarry known as the Mühlrech, on the left bank of the Uessbach immediately below the high road to Kenfus, and about a mile above Bertrich. Here the lava exhibits a fine section about 90 feet high, but it is being rapidly cleared away for road metal. The quarry lies immediately at the mouth of a side-valley called the Müllischwiese, which commences near the foot of the Falkenlei, one of the three craters that overshadow Bertrich, and gently slopes down for a distance of about three-quarters of a mile into the valley of the Uessbach. The lava which can be thus so easily traced down to Bertrich is part of a great stream which in all probability commenced at some point in the Müllischwiese, and followed the course of the Uessbach, filling its channel to a considerable height. On its way it forms the well-known “Cheese Grotto,” about half-a-mile above Bertrich. It is difficult to determine the exact spot in the Müllischwiese at which the flow commenced, for the valley is now all under cultivation and much overgrown in places, and no traces of the flow can be seen except at the quarry to which I have referred, which is at the junction of the two valleys. Excavations have now been commenced immediately above the quarry by the side of the high-road; and the lava which is there being exposed is exactly similar to that seen below in the large quarry, only it is not so hard and compact, and presents a somewhat slaggy appearance.

I have just read the abstract of Mr. Clement Reid's paper to the Geological Society (April 29, 1896) upon the Eocene deposits of Dorset. Many years ago I paid a good deal of attention to these beds, and have many notes upon what I saw. The section which I now send is reduced from my notebook, a section which in my belief has never been seen by any geologist except myself. It was taken when a large pit was open, and the section clear and unmistakable. I copy the words I wrote on the spot. “December 24, 1855. Examined the large gravel-pit recently opened in the Tertiary Eocene beds at Bincombe. A section is given on the last leaf [of the notebook]. The deep cuttings lately made show the beds to be vertical, following the dip of the chalk. The beds have much the character of those at Bournemouth, except that they are much coarser. The place of the large flints with fossils is shown in the section. The manner in which the ends of the vertical beds are bent over, and dragged down the slope of the hill, is particularly well shown.”

In the year 1856 Mr. J. W. Salter and Mr. W. Ferguson described before the Geological Society (Q.J.G.S., vol. xiii, p. 83, 1857) a series of fossils which had been collected from Drift material at Moreseat and other localities near Aberdeen, and seemed to indicate the occurrence of Cretaceous rocks in sitû at no great distance from this locality.

The question of the zonal division of the Carboniferous system has been raised during the last twelve months, and certain fossils have already been mentioned as typical of a certain succession in a certain district or traverse of rocks. Having studied the Carboniferous system in most of the districts of Great Britain and Ireland where the beds are exposed, and chiefly from a palæontological point of view, I beg to offer for discussion a few of the facts of biological distribution which have come to my knowledge.

The fossils of the Upper Greensand of Warminster have long been known to collectors and geologists on account of their number, variety, and excellent state of preservation; but little information has ever been published regarding the beds which yield them. Collections of the fossils are to be seen in most of the museums of the country, and the fauna represented by these collections has often been regarded as the typical fauna of the English Upper Greensand. This, however, is a mistake, for where fully developed, as in Wiltshire, the Upper Greensand includes two faunas which differ considerably from one another—(1) that of the malmstone and micaceous sand (Devizes Beds), (2) that of the greensands and chert beds (Warminster Beds). The complete succession of the Gault and Greensand Beds near Warminster is as follows:—