2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



Vero. This lower bed is overlaid by a stratum of fine white to light 

 brown sand, from a few inches to several feet thick, containing occa- 

 sional lenses or groups of marine shells and, locally, accumulations of 

 fossilized bones. This is the Number Two layer, usually referred to 

 as the bone bed, a deposit that is generally thicker on the east coast 

 than on the west. From this bone bed have come fossil vertebrate 



Fig. I. — Localities where collections of fossil birds have been 

 made in Florida. 



remains. Above this bone bed appear Recent deposits of sand or 

 humus that form the present surface, though in places the bone bed 

 is exposed. 



The actual age of the specimens from the beds in question has been 

 subject to some discussion. Dr. O. P. Hay ^ holds that the Number 



^Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 20, August 19, 1930, p. 335; and in earlier 

 papers. 



