Proceedings of the general meetings for scientific business of the Zoological Society of London, 1891

Page 562

474 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON [Nov. 3, VI. GALLIN^E. Cotnrnix communis, Bonnaterre.-As might have been expected from the abundance of the species at the present day on the Italian coasts, the remains of Quail are extremely common in Tavolara. The only specimen that I have thought it necessary to figure is the right tarso-metatarsus (represented in fig. 12 of Plate XXXVII.) ; but the collection comprises many specimens of this bone, as well as some of the tibio-tarsus, femur, coracoid, furcula, humerus, &c. Remains of Quail have been recorded by Milne-Edwards (t. c. pi. 134. figs. 25, 56) from the ossiferous breccia of Montmorency (Seine-et-Oise). Palmar aspect of the right humerus oiColumba, cf. livia, from the breccia of Toga, Corsica. •£. VII. TUBINARES. Procellaria.-Perhaps no bird-bones are more easily recognized than those of the Procellariidce ; some of the most characteristic being the coracoid, the humerus, and the tibio-tarsus. The humerus is readily distinguished from that of the Gulls by the absence of any distinct tricipital fossa, while the tibio-tarsus is equally well cha­racterized by the upward prolongation of its cnemial crest. Again, the wing-phalangeals lack the two fenestra? which are so especially distinctive of that bone in the Gaviae. The collection from the Tavolara caves comprises, as I have said, a large number of bones of Puffinus clearly referable to three distinct species. The want of skeletons of all the recent species of the genus, to which I have already alluded, precludes, however, the specific de­termination of more than two of these forms. These three Shearwaters are represented by bones from nearly all parts of the skeleton, including the skull. The specimens of the skull are alone sufficient to indicate the presence of three species, and are important in showing that all three belong to the long-beaked genus Puffinus as distinct from the shorter-beaked Fulmarus. The bones selected as illustrations of the three species are, however, chiefly the humerus, tibio-tarsus, and tarso-metatarsus.