PLIOCENE BIRD REMAINS FROM IDAHO 



By ALEXANDER WETMORE 



Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian In-stitution 



During the field seasons 1929 to 193 1 the Smithsonian Institution 

 has carried on paleontologic explorations near Hagerman,. Idaho, 

 which have yielded a most remarkable collection of fossil horse bones, 

 a few other mammalian remains, and scattered bones of other verte- 

 brates. The beds in which this material occurred were brought to 

 attention in 1928, when Dr. Harold T. Stearns, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, during geologic studies' in this area, was told of 

 fossil deposits by Mr. Elmer Cook, a local resident. Dr. Stearns 

 obtained from Mr. Cook a small collection of fossilized bones, and this 

 collection, forwarded through the Geological Survey to the United 

 States National Museum for examination, appeared so promising that 

 the following June the late Dr. J. W. Gidley, assistant curator of 

 mammalian fossils in the National Museum, went to Hagerman and 

 made preliminary collections. These indicated that the deposits con- 

 stituted one of the important discoveries in vertebrate paleontology 

 in recent years, so that in ^lay 1930 Dr. Gidley again visited the site 

 to continue work for the summer. The following year field-work was 

 pursued under the direction of Norman H. Boss, chief preparator in 

 the division of vertebrate paleontology of the National Museum.' The 

 resulting collections from 3 years of effort include one of the most 

 remarkable known series of fossil horse bones, of a species named by 

 Dr. Gidley Plcsippus sJioshoncnsis.^ 



The fossil-bearing beds are in what is known as the Hagerman 

 Lake beds. Although regarded by earlier authorities as Pleistocene. 

 Stearns, through his detailed studies of this area, has placed these beds 

 in the Upper Pliocene, in which conclusion he is supported by Gidley.' 



The principal quarry from which the fossil horse material was ob- 

 tained is located in the face of the slopes lying above Snake River 



^See Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1931. 

 Smithsonian Publ. 3134, 1932, PP- 41-44, figs. 35-39- 



^Journ. Mamm., 1930, p. 301. 



=■ For an account of Gidley's field-work in this area see Explorations and Field- 

 Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1929, Smithsonian Publ. 3060, 1930. 

 pp. 31-34; idem, in 1930, Smithsonian Publ. 31", I93i. PP- 33-40- 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 87, No. 20 



