5 : 3A : = 
1912] Miller: Pacific Coast Avian Palaeontology 8% 
SoME Recent’ Birps Norep IN THE Sinver LAKE REGION.19 
Geese, Swans, Pelicans, Cormorants Oreoseoptes montanus (Townsend, 
Echmorphorus occidentalis (Law- ie) SS.) 
rence). Asyndesmus lewisi Riley. 
Myadestes townsendi (Audubon). Reeurvirostra americana Gmelin. 
Txoreus naeyius (Gmelin). Himantopus mexicanus (Miller). 
If, as is suggested by the configuration of the country, the 
former elevation of the eaves was slightly less than at present 
and the country less broken, conditions were then more favor- 
able than at present for such species as Geococcyx californianus 
and Archibuteo ferrugineus. The probability that slow-moving 
streams and small lakelets served to attract waders, anserines, 
and Haliaétus would be greater in such a condition of the coun- 
try. 
In the vicinity of Fossil Lake, Oregon, the present avifauna 
would show probably several points of divergence from the eave 
region and from Rancho La Brea. Oreortyx, Cyanocitta, Aphe- 
locoma, and Geococcyx would probably be lacking, while one 
would doubtless meet with Pedioecetes, Centrocercus and Cyano- 
cephalus. 
At Rancho La Brea, Elanus and Geococcyx would prove more 
abundant, Agelaius, Nanthocephalus, and Otocoris would be 
plentiful, while Dendragapus, Oreortyx, and Cyanocitta would 
not be likely to oceur. Elanus and Geococcyx at Rancho La 
Brea, Dendragapus in the Shasta region and Centrocercus and 
Pedioecetes in the Fossil Lake region are the chief differences 
dependent upon latitude to be noticed among the three faunas. 
The other discrepancies are such as would be due to slight differ- 
erence in altitude, the proximity of water or the topography of 
the region. 
The long list of smaller passerines, piciforms and machro- 
cheirs is here purposely omitted, since they, though very im- 
portant in the determination of faunal zones, seem not to have 
been preserved in the fossil state to any great extent. 
Distribution of the Cathartidae-——One of the groups of chief 
interest in discussing the subject of distribution in the light 
19 Cope, E. D., The Silver Lake of Oregon and its Region, Am. Nat., vol. 
23, p. 970, 1889. 
