THE AVIFAUNA OF THE PLEISTOCENE IN FLORIDA 



By ALEXANDER WETMORE 



assistant secretary, smithsonian institution 



(With 6 Plates) 



Pleistocene deposits of fossils containing numerous bones of birds 

 have been known for years in the western part of the United States 

 in the Fossil Lake area in Oregon, and in the asphalt beds and caverns 

 of California, but such material in other sections of our country to 

 date has been decidedly rare and of limited amount. It is of interest, 

 therefore, to discuss recent discoveries of abundant avian remains in 

 Pleistocene beds in several localities in Florida, with representation of 

 a far larger number of species than has been found at any previous 

 time in the East. 



Early report of birds in the Pleistocene in Florida came from the 

 excavations at Vero on the east coast which initiated the argument re- 

 garding the antiquity of man in that area (see fig. i). There were 

 found here remains of a jabiru described by E. H. Sellards, and later 

 there came another collection from which Shufeldt named as new a 

 gull, a teal, and a heron. More recent excavations by J- W. Gidley and 

 by F. B. Loomis, and subsequent work by Doctor Gidley and C. P. 

 Singleton near Melbourne, not far from Vero, have brought to light 

 many bird bones, while investigations initiated by Walter Wetmore 

 Holmes near St. Petersburg on the west coast, in what is known as 

 the Seminole Field, have uncovered the most extensive series of fossil 

 bird IxDnes that have as yet been found in the eastern part of our 

 country. This series is supplemented by bones collected in several 

 localities in Manatee County by J. E. Moore, by a few bird bones 

 secured by Mr. Holmes from a Pleistocene cave deposit near Lecanto 

 in central Florida, and by specimens from several localities in the 

 collections of the Florida State Geological Survey. 



The geologic conditions under which these fossils, other than those 

 from the cave, are found are briefly as follows : At or below sea level 

 on the east coast of Florida is a bed of cemented sand and broken 

 marine shells tliat has been called the Anastasia formation, the Num- 

 ber One stratum, or the Coquina layer. At the Seminole Field near 

 St. Petersburg, the corresponding layer is of fine white sand con- 

 taining many mollusks, less compact than the beds at Melbourne and 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 85, No. 2 



