2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I40 



that they date back to the Pleistocene. The land area available at 

 Bermuda during the lowest sea level of Pleistocene time was limited, 

 as beyond the present shallow banks that surround the islands the 

 bottom falls off steeply to a considerable depth. 



Occurrence of the Bermuda petrel, the cahow of the early set- 

 tlers, in Pleistocene time is not to be classed as unusual, but the crane 

 and the duck present interesting records which indicate that the pecu- 

 liarities of the avifaunas of the Pleistocene known in the West 

 Indies (including the Bahama Islands) extended also to the remote 

 Bermudas. 



Drawings illustrating the specimens have been made by Lawrence 

 B. Isham. 



Family PROCELLARIIDAE, Shearwaters, Fulmars 



PTERODROMA CAHOW (Nichols and Mowbray): Bermuda Petrel 



Aestrelata cahow Nichols and Mowbray, Auk, vol. 33, No. 2, April (March 31), 

 1916, p. 194. (Southeast side of Castle Island, Bermuda.) 



The numerous bones in the deposit indicate that the cahow was as 

 abundant in this period of the Pleistocene as it was in the early days 

 of colonists who settled on Bermuda. The material, which is rather 

 fragmentary, includes representation of the humerus, ulna, carpo- 

 metacarpus, f urcula, coracoid, femur, tibiotarsus, and tarsometatarsus. 

 These do not differ from modern specimens in the collections of the 

 United States National Museum. 



Family ANATIDAE, Swans, Geese, Ducks 



ANAS PACHYSCELUS sp. nov. 



(PI. I, figs. 1-5) 



Holotype. — Left tarsometatarsus, U.S.N. M. No. 22506, complete 

 except for part of talon, from H. Bernard Wilkinson Quarry, south 

 and west of Coney Island, Hamilton Parish, Bermuda. 



Characters. — Tarsometatarsus similar in general form to that of 

 modern Anas bahamensis Linnaeus ; size decidedly larger, being equal 

 in length to that of male Anas platyrhynchos, with the shaft more 

 robust than in the nominate race of that species ; central line of the 

 two that mark the attachment of the tibialis anticus extended distally 

 for half its length below the lower end of the outer line ; posterior 

 face of upper end of shaft with a shallow, well-marked sulcus extend- 

 ing past base of inner side of talon ; trochleae relatively broader and 

 heavier. 



