No. 4.— Characters and Relations of Gallinuloides wyomingensis 
Eastman, a Fossil Gallinaceous Bird from the Green River 
Shales of Wyoming. By Freperic A. Lucas. 
THE specimen upon which the following observations are based was 
discovered in the Green River Shales (Middle Eocene) of Fossil, 
Wyoming, during the summer of 1899, and was shortly after procured 
for the Museum of Comparative ZoGlogy at Cambridge, where it is now 
preserved (Cat. Foss. Birds, No. 1598). Dr. C. R. Eastman briefly 
described (Geological Magazine, February, 1900) the bird as Gallinu- 
loides wyomingensis, and at his solicitation a more detailed investigation 
of its structure and relations was undertaken, the results of which are 
herein set forth. 
Like the well-known Green River fishes, the specimen is very complete 
and in a most excellent state of preservation, although a little injured 
as to skull, vertebrae, and digits through the over-zealous preparation of 
the collector. There is a thin, dark, unctuous layer lying on the same 
plane as the skeleton and almost confluent with the thinner bones, so 
much so that in developing the finer points it was at times difficult to 
shun the temptation to carve out a character that might readily be 
imagined to exist. This layer obscures the ribs, which are scattered, as 
well as other portions of the skeleton. While, however, many structural 
details cannot be made out, the general characters are so distinct and 
the affinities of the bird so apparent that these defects are of compara- 
tively small importance. 
The Green River bird was of about the size of a Ruffed Grouse, but 
stood somewhat higher on its legs. Its galliform nature is obvious at a 
glance, the most apparent peculiarities being the length of the legs and 
the depth and the anterior extent of the sternal keel. The majority of 
its structural resemblances are with the curassows and with the genus 
Ortalis amongst those birds, but while according to Huxley’s definition 
it indisputably falls in the Peristeropodes, there are sufficiently strong 
characters to exclude it from both the Cracide and Megapodiide. The 
bird presents no points of affinity with any of the American grouse, still 
less with any of the Odontophorine. 
VOL. XXXVI.—NO. 4. 
