334 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



to be extinct, as stated in his first letter, it briefly described the locality 

 where the material was found and who collected it. This resulted in 

 my writing to Mr. McGall, the collector, who shortly afterwards, with 

 great generosity, sent me his own private collection of bones taken 

 in the same caves mentioned above. On the seventh of September, 

 1915, in a letter I received from Mr. McGall, he said: "A few days 

 ago I sent by express some more bones of this same bird, which were 

 obtained from the cave this year. I was fortunate enough to find 

 vertebrae and other of the smaller bones, so that with this addition 

 you will probably have sufficient to make a presentable assembly. 

 Along with the bones were inclosed a small package of decomposed 

 coral stone and a stalactite. The cave is formed entirely of this 

 decomposed coral sand with stalactite roof. You will note that the 

 stalactite is dead and that the bones have kept in such fine shape 

 because of the dryness of this cave. It is also interesting to note 

 that in all of the other caves visited, some eight in all. no bones of 

 any sort were found. Most of these caves were still damp and 

 stalactite and stalagmite were growing." 



" As regards the horizon, I should say that it is entirely recent, 

 approximately three hundred years." - 



Being desirous of bringing together all the material possible to 

 work up these most interesting bones, I soon ascertained that, about 

 two years previous to my receiving the two lots referred to in the 

 letters of Doctor Lucas and Mr. McGall, the U. S. National Museum 

 had in its collections some more material, which very likely was of 

 the same character. Upon due investigation it became evident that 

 this material had, for some purpose or other, been sent to the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History for examination, and probably was 

 in the possession of Doctor Lucas. After a little interesting corre- 



- In addition to the bird bones which made up Mr. McGall's collection, I 

 found the claw of some medium-sized crustacean ; and, believing that it might 

 prove of interest to identify the species, I submitted the specimen to Miss 

 Mary J. Rathbun, the well-known carcinologist of the U. S. National Museum, 

 who kindly pronounced it to be " a sub-fossil movable finger of Gecarcinus 

 lagosfoma M. Edw." Miss Rathbun further stated that while " The species 

 is recent, it was not known to live in Bermuda." In other words, this was 

 a part of a claw of a crab, the distribution of which at one time included the 

 Bermudas, but which now is extinct there and probably over still more of 

 its former range. 



