NO. 2 AVIFAUNA OF PLEISTOCENE IN FLORIDA WETMORE 35 



it has seemed entirely loi^ical to consider this specimen as representa- 

 tive of a peculiar species. Among numerous other tarsal bones in the 

 material from the Florida Pleistocene it stands unique, indicating 

 probable rarity. It is possible that some of the bones from other parts 

 of the skeleton that have been identified as McJcagris gallopai'O belong 

 to AI. trident but this cannot be determined. 



It may be remarked that multiple spurs are not unusual among 

 gallinaceous birds of the Old World, though hitherto unknown in any 

 American species. The pheasants of the genus Ithaginis regularly 

 have two or more pairs of spurs in the male. The same is true of 

 Polyplcctrou, while according to Ogilvie-Grant ' duplicate spurs occur 

 in Haeinatortyx, Caloperdix, and GaUoperdix. The vulturine guinea 

 fowl, AcryUium vulturhruin, frequently has two to four lumpy spur- 

 like processes on the tarsus. 



The type of Melcagris tridcns is so fragmentary that it affords few 

 measurements. The transverse diameter of the shaft just below the 

 spurs is 9.0 mm. The buttress supporting the spurs is 30.6 mm. long. 

 The form may be ascertained from the accompanying figure. 



Order GRUIFORMKS 



Family GRUIDAE 

 GRUS AMERICANA (Linnaeus) 



Whooping crane 



Ardea amcricana Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. i, 1758, p. 142. 



Remains of cranes obtained by W. W. Holmes in the Seminole 

 Field, Pinellas County, include fragments of metacarpus, tibio-tarsus 

 and femur, and of three ulnae. Two fragmentary ulnae and one 

 radius are in the collections of the Florida State Geological Survey 

 from the Itchtucknee River area in Columbia County. Gidley collected 

 part of an ulna from stratum Number Two at Melbourne in 1930, and 

 Singleton secured part of another ulna in the same beds in June, 1929, 

 when collecting for the Museum of Comparative Zoology. All are 

 easily distinguished from the bones of other cranes found with them 

 by their much greater size. 



Though the whooping crane was recorded from Florida by early 

 ornithologists, in recent years d(jubt has been cast upon these reports 

 and the species seems not to have been certainly found in modern 



'Cat. Birds Brit. Miis., vol. 22, 1893, pp. 221, 222, 260. 



