Fossil Birds in the Marsh CoUeciion of Yale Univcrsiiy 19 



This being the case, the name bestowed upon it by jNIarsh is a 

 particularly inappropriate and unfortunate one, and some such name 

 as Limosavis would more correctly indicate its position in the system. 



Graculavus pumilus IMarsh. 



{Plate VII, Fig. 53.) 



Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci., ser. 3, III, 1872, 363. 



Holotype. Cat. No. 1209, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Battle Creek, 

 Kansas. Cretaceous. O. C. Marsh, collector. 



Here we have a species of the genus Graculavus of Marsh, based 

 upon the distal end of a right humerus (fossil); upon the distal 

 moiety of the main shaft of , the right carpo-metacarpus (fossil) and 

 upon five slivers of bone, which probably belonged to the same 

 individual, but which are, for the most part, too fragmentary for 

 recognition. 



As Marsh placed this extinct species in his genus Graculavus, it 

 is fair to presume that he not only took it to be related to Graculavus 

 vclox, but likewise to Phalacrocorax. As a matter of fact, it was not 

 related to a Cormorant in any way whate\-er, beyond the circum- 

 stance that both were birds. The head of this humerus, however, — 

 that is, the one now being considered,— is distinctly from some limi- 

 coline species, and in that way related, within the same group, to 

 Graculavus velox of Marsh. Graculavus pumilus, however, as these 

 fragments clearly indicate, was a true scolopacine species, being a 

 bird not far removed from either Scolopax or Philohcla, and of a size 

 about one-third (or a little more) larger than the latter (PI. VH, 

 Figs. 53, 54). 



Graculavus anceps Marsh. 



{Plate XIII, Fig. 93.) 



Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci., ser. 3, III, 1872, 364. 



Holotype. Cat. No. 1208, Peabody Museum, Yale University. North Fork, 

 Smoky Hill River, Kansas. Cretaceous. O. C. Marsh, collector. 



In his description of the material upon which this species of 

 Graculavus is based, it is given by Marsh as "the distal extremity of 

 a left metacarpal." The type specimen is before me, with its number 

 (1208) marked on it, and the determination of the bone (on a label 

 with it) in Professor Marsh's own handwriting. I may say that it is 

 probably the distal extremity of a left metacarpal, and if so, it belonged 

 to some average-sized bird — a Curlew, for example; but it is so imper- 



