1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 509 



These specimens are all from adult individuals of the various spe- 

 cies they represent; they are, furthermore, thoroughly fossilized ; 

 free from any matrix, save in a few instances where a thin layer of 

 a dark-colored incrustation spreads over the ends of some of the 

 long and other bones. They are very light in color, and, upon the 

 whole, quite perfect. Some are thoroughly so, as, for example, Nos. 

 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 20, others exhibit a little chipping at 

 the extremities, or have other slight imperfections, as, for example, 

 Nos. 11, 17, 19, 21, 22, 25 and 26; while, finally, the balance are 

 more or less fragmentary, as set forth in the above list. 



No. 7 is a femur that apparently belonged to a medium-sized 

 rodent, but as I have not the proper material wherewith to compare 

 it, it is impossible fur me to identify the species. It has a total 

 length of 4.9 centimeters, and presents the usual characters seen 

 in a small rodent's femur, as that, for example, of one of the 

 Seiuridse, or some of their near allies. 



The vIna in lot No. 10, and the end of the femur in No. 27, also 

 belong to small mammals, but, from lack of material, I am unable 

 to identify them. The first-mentioned specimen has a length of 4 

 centimeters, while the last is fragmentary, and I take it to be a 

 mammal from the fact that no fibular notch exists in the posterior 

 aspect of the external condyle — a common avian character. 



A study of specimens Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, the tarso-metatar- 

 sus of lot No. 10 and No. 11, convinced me that they had one and 

 all belonged to species of Shearwater (Puffinus). This conviction 

 was arrived at after comparing the bones with those of a skeleton of 

 Puffinns borealis,^ and with the figures and descriptions given us by 

 Professor Alf Milne-Edwards in his Recherches sur les Oiseaux Fos- 

 siles de la France.^ Furthermore, the tibio-tarsus No. 3 agreed ex- 

 actly in length and in characters with the specimen No. 9, while in 

 the case of the femora in lot No. 5, and the humeri in lot No. 6, 

 although they agreed in characters, differed in either case, somewhat 

 in length. This, however, amounted to but very little ; for example, 

 one of the femora measured 4.0 cms. in length, and the other 3.9 

 cms. in length, whereas, in the case of the humeri, this difference is 

 a little greater, one having a length of 7.9 cms. and the other only 

 7.5 cms. 



1 Mounted Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 17,772. 



' Planches 49-53 incl. Atlas I, where the bones of Puffinus cinereus are 

 figured, and in Texte I, p. 301, et seq. where they are, with others, described. 



