PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 91(2), 1978, pp. 444-449 THE NOMENCLATURAL STATUS OF THE TAXA OF FOSSIL BIRDS ATTRIBUTED TO AUGUSTE AYMARD Storrs L. Olson Abstract. — The taxa of fossil birds traditionally attributed to Auguste Aymard are absolute nomina nuda as originally proposed by him, and their proper usage depends on the treatment afforded them by Milne-Edwards in his Oiseaux Fossiles de la France. The nomenclatural and bibliographic problems arising from this are discussed. Throughout the literature of avian paleontology, Auguste Aymard (1856) is cited as the author of four generic and six specific names of fossil birds from Lower Oligocene deposits at Ronzon, Dept. of Haute Loire, France. Milne-Edwards (1867-1871) discussed these taxa and illustrated most of them, attributing the names to Aymard. Apparently, all subsequent authors except Cracraft and Rich (1972) have followed Milne-Edwards without examining Aymard's publication, which is evidently quite scarce. Lambrecht (1933) specifically states that he did not examine the original reference, and likewise Brodkorb (pers. comm.) had not seen it before he published the first three parts of his Catalogue of Fossil Birds (Brodkorb 1963, 1964, 1967). I have been able to obtain photocopies of Aymard's publication made from an original in the library of Columbia University, New York. The paper is in the form of a report on the geology and paleontology of the Haute Loire region, and was presented in the minutes of two separate seances of the Congres Scientifique de France held at Puy, September 1855. Because of the rarity of the publication and the fact that avian paleon-tologists have seldom examined it, the brief portions of the text concerning fossil birds are reproduced here. [p. 233] La classe des oiseaux comprend divers ordres, dans lesquels se repartissent au moins quinze especes reconnaissables a diverses pieces, telles qu'ossements, plumes et oeufs. La presque totalite de ces restes signalent des oiseaux de grande et de moyenne taille, comprises entres celles que presentent aujourd'hui les flamands et les grues, et celles des harles et dernes ou hirondelles de mer. Les ordres qui ont surtout des repre-sentants parmi ces especes sont, comme ces oiseaux palustres, des echassiers et des palmipedes sans exclure les rapaces. C'est au dernier de ces ordres qu'appartient un oiseau de proie diurne, de la tribu des faucons, que j'ai nomme ieracus littoralis. Au nombre des echassiers, je puis citer aussi le camaskelus palustris. Aym., voisin des pluviers; Yelornis grandis. A., qui se
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