26 R. W. Shufeldt 



Telmatoenis priscus Marsh. 

 {Plate VI, Fig. 37.) 



Marsh, Amer. Joum. Sci., ser. 2, XLIX, 1870, 210. 



Holotype. Cat. No. 840, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Homerstown, 

 New Jersey. Cretaceous. J. G. Meirs, collector. 



Distal portion (perhaps a third) of a fossil humerus of a bird from 

 the left pectoral extremity. As far as it goes it is quite perfect. It 

 belonged to a form about one-fourth larger than a Green Heron 

 {Butorides virescens), with which I have compared it. Taken the 

 world over, it is an interesting fact that the distal part of the humerus 

 of certain Herons and their allies are quite like the same part of that 

 bone in many of the larger species of the Limicolce; and either may, 

 in some characters, resemble the distal ends of the humeri in certain 

 paludicoline species. Professor Marsh, when he made his genus 

 Telmatornis, was e\idently confronted with this fact; for in his 

 article on the subject, he clearly wavered in his decision on affinities, 

 and mentions ha\'ing humeri before him of Rallus, Philohela and 

 Butorides. As a matter of fact, the distal portion of the humerus, 

 even when perfect, is a very uncertain part of the skeleton, when used 

 alone, to be employed in making a diagnosis, especially when the 

 birds are from the above-mentioned groups. 



Now the bird, to whose skeleton this fragment of a humerus belonged 

 in life, was not a Heron, although it might easily be mistaken for that 

 part of the skeleton of one, especially those belonging to species wherein 

 the humerus is much compressed distally, transversely. With 

 respect to extinct birds, there may have beeen some Rail (Rallus) that 

 this bone, or rather fragment of a humerus, might have belonged to. 

 There may have been some big Plover that this fragment belonged to; 

 and I would not be surprised had either reference been made, and it 

 was in our power to prove it to be the correct one. 



In any event, it may have belonged to some rather large raUine 

 species; but in the absence of any additional material there is no 

 certaintv about it. 



