60 R. W. Shufeldt 



mentary for the purposes of reference, especially in view of the fact 

 that there is now quite a list of extinct birds of this group described; 

 and if new species are to be established, beyond all manner of doubt, 

 it must be done only upon ample material and exhaustive comparison 

 with that already described and named. 



BIRD (indetermined). 



{Plate XV, Fig. 137.) 



Cat. No. 944, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Cherry Creek, Nebraska. 

 ? Oligocene. O. C. Marsh, collector. 



Distal portion of a fossil right humerus of a bird. Imperfect. 

 Adult. Species the size of a Sage Cock. Of but Httle use for reference. 



MIOCENE BIRDS. 



Aquila danana Marsh. 



{Plate II, Fig. 13.) 



Marsh, Amer. Joum. Sci., ser. 3, II, 1871, 125. 



Holotype. Cat. No. 293, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Loup Fork, 

 Nebraska. [Miocene. Lull]. A. H. Ewing, collector. 



Consists of the extreme distal end of the left tibio-tarsus of a fossil 

 bird. It is fairly perfect anteriorly, but quite imperfect posteriorly. 

 I have not Marsh's description before me at this writing, but I have 

 compared this specimen with the corresponding part of the skeleton 

 in several eagles. It doubtless belonged to a true eagle, but not essen- 

 tially Aquila. In size it was but little more than half the bulk of the 

 Bald Eagle (Haliceelus 1. leucocephalus) ; but I am inclined to believe 

 that it did not belong in either that genus or in Aquila. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, it was closer to some of the vulturine species than to 

 any Eagle — something like a small Gypaetus barbaliis for instance. 

 There is not enough of the material to really make a positive identi- 

 fication, in so far as its being an "Eagle" is concerned. 



Phasianus mioceanus sp. nov. 



{Plate XIII, Figs. 94-96, 98.) 



Cotypes. Cat. Nos. 908, 909, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Chimney 

 Rock and Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. Miocene. Shelley and Clifford, H. Clifford, 

 collectors. 



The fossil material, upon which I base this new and true pheasant 

 from the Miocene of Nebraska, consists of the proximal two-thirds 



