FOSSIL REMAINS OF WHAT APPEARS TO BE A PASSERINE 

 BIRD FROM THE FLORISSANT SHALES OF COLORADO. 



By R. W. Shufeldt, 

 Of Washington, District of Columbia. 



The specimen here to be described was collected by its present 

 owner, Prof. Ira E. Cutler, of the University of Denver, Denver, 

 Colorado, and forwarded to the United States National Museum for 

 description. [My attention was called to it by Mr. Charles W. Gil- 

 more, of the National Museum, at whose request the following descrip- 

 tion has been made :] 



According to Professor Cutler the specimen was found early in 

 August, 1915, in a gutter beside the road leading out of the town of 

 Florissant, Colorado, in a locality where no specimens have here- 

 tofore been discovered. It was fully half a mile from the much- 

 worked beds, from which so many fossils have been taken for a num- 

 ber of years past. 



It would seem that Professor Cutler retained the bones of this 

 fossil bird, and what I have before me at this writing are simply 

 impressions of them; that is, the portion of the matrix or slab hfted 

 off of such parts of the skeleton as were discovered. Fortunately, 

 these impressions are tolerably sharp, but they are by no means as 

 acciu'ate for scientific description as the bones themselves. No 

 other parts of the skeleton were found, however, after a rather long 

 and careful search. I have made a negative of this specimen which 

 shows it natural size, and a reproduction of a print from this is 

 given in Plate CO, while in the reproduction of a second print, Plate 

 CI, the bones of the lower extremity have been outlined by me care- 

 fully in ink, in order to show their size and the positions they severaUy 

 occupy in the matrix. On the side of the slab where the impressions 

 are the surface is smooth, while upon the other side it is overlaid 

 with a finely granulated and extremely thin concretion. (Hero 

 may be noted the number of the specimen, namely 8541, U.S.N.M.). 

 This piece of shale, as is shown in the plates, is in three pieces, and 

 each averages about a millimeter and a half in thickness. The 

 upper and largest piece (1) presents upon its surface the impression 

 of the bones of a part of the lower extremity of an average-sized bird; 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 53-No. 2215. 



453 



