6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



According to data secured from Mr. Holmes and from a paper on 

 the mammals of these beds by Doctor Simpson' of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, the fossil bones come originally from 

 one deposit in the area in question, many of them being obtained by 

 excavating in the original deposit, some coming from erosional wash 

 and redeposit by Joe's Creek which runs through this area, and some 

 from the dump along a drainage canal cut through this region. The 

 bone-bearing layer is from i to 2 feet thick. According to Simpson 

 " the lowest bed exposed is of white sand, with numerous marine 

 shells, correlated by Cooke with the Anastasia formation of the east 

 coast, and hence the equivalent of stratum No. i at Vero and Mel- 

 bourne. Above this, sometimes with a barren sand layer intervening, 

 is the bone bed, equivalent in age and character with stratum No. 2. 

 This is generally overlain by a sandy soil, derived from it by weather- 

 ing." Gidley has distinguished above this in places deposits of sand 

 and muck that he considers equivalent to stratum Number Three of 

 the east coast. 



The list of mammals from this area as determined by Doctor Simp- 

 son is extensive and includes among its 49 species a capybara, a bear, 

 Arctodus floridanus, a saber-tooth tiger, two ground-sloths, two glypto- 

 dons, tapirs, peculiar pigs, camelids, mastodon, and elephant that are 

 considered typically Pleistocene species, in addition to opossums, 

 moles, rabbits, rodents, skunks, minks, and deer of the same form 

 as those occurring in the modern fauna. 



The bird remains collected by Mr. Holmes include 52 forms, this 

 being the largest assemblage of fossil species secured to date at any 

 point in the eastern portion of North America. The importance of the 

 collection is very evident from examination of the list that follows. 

 A teal, Qucrqucdida floridana, a huge condor, Tcrafoniis mcrriaini, 

 and a turkey, Meleagris tridens, are extinct species of the Pleistocene, 

 the first and last being known only from Florida. The jabiru, Jahiru 

 niycteria, the Mexican turkey vulture, Catliartcs aura aura, and the 

 wood-rail, Aramides cajanea, are forms that at the present time range 

 in tropical America and are not now known in the present limits of 

 the United States. An eagle, Geranoactiis sp., has its only living repre- 

 sentative in South America though Pleistocene forms have been found 

 in, California. Most remarkable are remains of the California condor, 

 Gymnogyps calif orniamis, and a larger condorlike vulture, Tcratornis 



* Simpson, George Gaylord, Pleistocene mammalian fauna of the Seminole 

 Field, Pinellas County, Florida, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 54, Febru- 

 ary 19, 1929, pp. 561-599, 22 figs. 



