1912] Miller: Pacific Coast Avian Palaeontology 79 
of the birds from that region. Our knowledge of the various 
western horizons has, however, been extended by later investiga- 
tors in stratigraphy and in the correlation of faunas, with the 
result that these beds are now proven unquestionably to be of 
Pleistocene age. Such change of interpretation alters materially 
the significance of discoveries announced by Cope and by Shu- 
feldt in that it reduces appreciably the extent to which several 
existing genera are known to run back in time. 
The various descriptions of this region are summarized in a 
concise and very lucid paragraph or two by Osborn! from which 
the following may well be quoted: 
“One hundred and fifty miles northwest of the old Lahontan shore 
lines in the heart of the Oregon Desert of the great basin, and twenty 
miles northeast of Silver Lake, there is a slight depression in the desert 
perhaps twenty acres in extent marked Christmas Lake on the maps, to 
which Cope gave the name ‘Fossil Lake.’ This ‘Silver,’ ‘Christmas,’ or 
‘Fossil’ lake region was successively explored by Condon, Cope, Sternberg 
(who made the chief collections), and Russel (1882)... . Though actually 
twenty miles distant from Silver Lake, the rich fauna of mammals and 
birds found has been deseribed by Cope13 and Shufeldt, and referred to by 
Gilbert, as the fauna of the Silver Lake Equus beds. . . . 
“*Proof that the country was partly fluviatile and partly wooded is 
afforded by the presence of the muskrat (Fiber), the otter (Lutra), the 
beaver ( Castor fiber), and the giant beaver (Castoroides). 
«ec... . The bird life was very abundant and not very dissimilar from 
what we might observe at any of the alkaline lakes of the West, resorted 
to at the present day by wild fowl during their migrations. Great flocks 
of swans (Cygnus paloregonus), geese (Anser condoni), and ducks were 
there; a cormorant (Phalacrocoraz) was among the rarities; among the 
species of grebe (Podiceps occidentalis) is one still inhabiting this region. 
There were also coots (Fulica minor) and herons (Ardea paloccidentalis). 
Other forms of birds include two species of grouse, crows, and eagles. The 
strangest figure upon the scenes among the birds was a true flamingo 
(Phoenicopterus copei). The northernmost distribution of flamingoes at 
the present is southern Florida and the Bahama Islands (lat. 27° N). 
Shufeldt concludes that the climate might well be compared with that of 
Florida or the lower part of Louisiana, that the vegetation was fully as 
luxuriant as it now is in those parts, and that the palms were abundantly 
represented. This conclusion as to a Floridan climate and the existence 
of palms is, however, very questionable. Brown!+ observes that the South 
American flamingoes (Phoenicopterus chilensis) migrate as far south as 
12 Osborn, H. F., The Age of Mammals, p. 458. 
13 Cope, E. D., The Silver Lake of Oregon and its Region, Am, Nat., vol. 
23, pp. 970-982, 1889. 
14 Mr. Barnum Brown in a note to the author [Osborn]. 
