38 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



85 



to Argentina, has been another of the unexpected finds in the present 

 collection. The two metatarsal bones are well fossilized, one being 

 black in color and the other brown. The femur contains somewhat 

 less mineral. 



Identification to species of these bones has been difficult owing to 

 lack of material for comparison. That they are not related to the 

 large A. ypccaJia and A. saracura of the area from southern Brazil 

 southward is obvious. Likewise it is evident on close study that they 



14 15 16 



Figs. 14-16. — Metatarsi of the wood rail .Iraiiiidcs cajaiica from the Seminole 



area (natural size). 



are from a bird larger than A. axillaris and its allies, which are among 

 the smallest forms of the group. They are smaller than albiventris, 

 but agree with A. cajanca, which now ranges in two or more sub- 

 species from Panama southward into Brazil, and are identified as of 

 that group on this basis. The genus has not been previously recorded 

 north of southeastern Mexico nor has it been previously encountered 

 as a fossil. Its occurrence in the Pleistocene of Florida is quite in 

 keeping with the various types of mammals of South American 

 affinity that come from these same beds. 



