Fossil Birds in the Marsh Collection of Yale University 53 



BIRDS ? (indetermined). 



(Plate V, Figs. 28, 29.) 



Cat. Nos. 952, 953, Peabody JNIuseum, Yale University. Henry's Fork, Wyo- 

 ming. Eocene (Bridger). H. G. Cheney and E. Lane, collectors. 



These specimens, or in the case of No. 863 of Plate V, are excellent 

 examples of fossil bones of birds — should they be birds — that are 

 quite useless for the purposes of comparison with fossils of birds about 

 which there can be no question; and, in my opinion, they are beyond 

 the ability of any one to correctly determine. 



In 952 we have the proximal portion of the left (?) tarso-metatarsus 

 of some species, which, if it belonged to a bird, was a form about the 

 size of an American Woodcock {Philohela), though it does not appear 

 to be in any way related to that species. I say that this bone is from 

 the left side, for the reason that the main part of the hypotarsus — a 

 parallelogrammic plate — is on the mesial side of the shaft, with its 

 inner surface flush with the latter. This is the rule in most birds 

 wherein the hypotarsus consists of a single plate, as it does in this 

 fossil bone. 



There is a median, longitudinal groove also present in this specimen, 

 its boundaries somewhat raised, forming the rest of the hypotarsus. 

 The inferior part of the hypotarsial plate is broken off, while the 

 superior end of it supports an articular facet, and the form of the 

 facet on the summit of the shaft is, like the former, convex. All this 

 so far departs from what we usually see in the summit of the tarso- 

 metatarsus in birds, that I would not be surprised were I to find that 

 this bone never belonged to a bird's skeleton, as I surmise to be the 

 case in a former paragraph. 



In 953 (PI. V, Fig. 2S a, b and c,), the specimen is so compressed 

 that it has been rendered useless for any purpose whatever. This 

 bone is in three parts (a, b and c), and was compressed quite flat in the 

 antero-posterior direction. It represents the right femur of some bird 

 about the size of a small goose, and I have figured all three pieces on 

 their posterior aspects, a being the distal half of the bone, b the 

 proximal portion, and c a piece of the shaft from the middle section. 



The "notch" for the head of the fibula is well shown, as is Ukewise 

 a part of the internal condyle. 



Passing to Figure 29 (PI. V), b and c have already been described 

 above; a invites attention to the specimen having the catalogue 

 number of 895, and has likewise been described above. 



