OCR Text |
Show 1890.] EXTINCT BIRDS FROM MALTA. 407 figs. 7, 7 a, 7 b), which agrees fairly well in relative size with fossil limb-bones, indicates a Vulture referable to Gyps rather than to Vultur. The whole of the characters of this vertebra are indeed so essentially the same as those of the existing G.fulvus, even down to the presence of the median pneumatic foramen, that it would be waste of words to recapitulate them. Indeed the only distinctive mark of the fossil, in addition to its superior dimensions, is the somewhat greater prominence of the tubercle on the inferior surface of the centrum immediately behind the anterior pit. This slight difference could not, however, be regarded as more than an individual or specific one. The length of the fossil centrum in the median line is 0,029, and the greatest transverse diameter 0,023. The first Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Anterior and inferior aspects of a Anterior and inferior aspects late cervical vertebra of Vultur of the corresponding vertebra of monachus. a small individual of Gypsfulvus. Letters as in Plate X X X V I . fig. 7. of two later cervicals in the Museum (No. 49354, a), apparently coming next behind the preceding specimen, agrees exactly with the corresponding vertebra of G. fulvus, having the same pair of pneumatic foramina at the roots of the lower transverse processes. An imperfect anterior cervical (No. 49354*) resembles the seventh cervical of G.fulvus in the narrowness of the inferior surface of the centrum, which appears to be the most characteristic feature of the vertebrae of the anterior cervical region. 28* |