Fossil Birds in the Marsh Collection of Yale University 13 



CoNiORNis ALTus Marsh. 

 (Plate III, Figs. 22-24.) 



[Hesperornis regalis. PI. IV, Figs. 25-27.] 

 Marsh, Amer. Joum. Sci., ser. 3, XIV, 1893, 81, Figs. 2-3o. 

 Holotj^e. Cat. No. 515, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Judith River, 

 Montana. Cretaceous. J. B. Hatcher, collector. 



As indicated by the fossil remains of the type, Coniornis alius was 

 a bird of very considerable size. We find its description by Professor 

 Marsh in The American Journal of Science for the year 1893, where 

 he compares it with Hesperornis regalis, Marsh, and states that "The 

 present type specimen [of Coniornis alius] indicates a bird about two- 

 thirds the size of Hesperornis regalis Marsh or about four feet in 

 length, from the point of the bill to the end of the toes. It was 

 recently found by Mr. J. B. Hatcher, near the mouth of the Judith 

 River, in Montana." 



Inasmuch as we have but the lower part of the right tibio-tarsus of 

 this bird in our possession, and as this fragment, as Marsh pointed 

 out in his article,^ would seem to indicate that it belonged to a species 

 generically distinct from Hesperornis regalis, it would hardly seem 

 that one would be justified in stating that it measured four feet from 

 the tip of the mandible to the end of the toes. Indeed, no one would 

 be justified in making such a statement, based upon only a part of one 

 of the long bones of the skeleton. 



Marsh's article on Coniornis is illustrated with five figures, giving 

 the anterior (Fig. 1), lateral (Fig. 2) and posterior (Fig. 3) \'iews of 

 this fossil, together with a horizontal section of the shaft (Fig. 1 a) 

 and a view of the condyles from below (Fig. 3 a). These "figures 

 are one-half natural size," and to some extent restorations, as will be 

 appreciated by any one who will compare them with my figures of 

 the fossil remains of Coniornis alius in Plate III, Figures 22, 23 and 

 24 of this article. 



At the present writing the type specimens representing Coniornis 

 alius belong in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Yale Univer- 

 sity, and are at hand for examination (Cat. No. 515). It will be 

 seen from the Plate that the specimens is in three pieces : a large distal 

 portion of the right tibio-tarsus and two proximal fragments of the 

 shaft which belong to it, and these, when brought together, are found 

 to be in direct continuity with the aforesaid distal portion. (My figures 

 are given about natural size.) This latter measures in total length 



' Art. VIII. — A New Cretaceous Bird allied to Hesperornis. 



