Fossil Birds in the Marsh Collection of Yale University 2)3 



BoTAUROiDES PARVUS gen. et sp. nov. 



(Not figured.) 



Holotype. Cat. No. 1030, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Spanish John 

 Meadow, Wyoming. Eocene (Bridger ?). L. LaMothe, collector. 



A nearly perfect lower extremity of a left tarso-metatarsus of a fossil 

 form of small size. It presents the main characters of this bone as it 

 is found in the Ardeidce, and more specifically among the Bitterns. 



It evidently belonged to a species smaller than the Least Bittern 

 (Jxobrychus exilis); and wh^le a herodionine form, it was neither a true 

 Heron nor a typical Bittern, but, judging froii this fragment, appar- 

 ently related to both, and, in any event, belonging squarely in that 

 group. 



Only the lower part of the shaft is preserved, and this is convex 

 transversely, being correspondingly concave posteriorly. In the Bit- 

 terns, the shaft posteriorly is flat ; the foramen for the anterior tibial 

 artery is minute, and has a longitudinal groove leading into it anteri- 

 orly. As in most Herons and Bitterns, the inner and middle trochlear 

 processes are of about the same length, while the outer one is markedly 

 shorter. Across the three it measures 5 millimeters, the width of the 

 shaft being somewhat less.^ 



BxjBO LEPOSTEUS Marsh. 



{Plate II, Fig. 18.) 



Marsh, Amer. Joum. Sci., ser. 3, II, 1871, 126. 



Holotype. Cat. No. 512, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Grizzly Buttes, 

 Wyoming. Eocene (Bridger). O. C. Marsh, collector. 



The specimen consists of the distal portion of a left tibio-tarsus, and 

 two small slivers of bone that belong to the side of the shaft. It is 

 fairly perfect, though somewhat worn on the condyles. Through a 

 slip. Professor Marsh states that it is half of a tibia, which could not 

 be so even in the case of an Owl. Probably not more than a fourth of 

 the total length of the original bone is preserved. 



This bone never came from the skeleton of an Owl, much less from 

 such an Owl as a Bubo. It is a most interesting fossil, and the pity is 

 that such a meagre part of the skeleton was discovered. 



There is not enough of it to enable us to state correctly as to what 

 kind of a bird it represents. It belonged to a species fully as large as 

 a Bubo virginianus, but it presents but one strigine character and that 



' Generic name = Botaurus -\- Gr. €t5os resemblance. Spec, name = Lat. par- 

 vus, small. 



