358 General Notes. [£$ 



tarsus and belonged to a bird of medium size. It is well fossilized but is 

 too fragmentary for definite reference. 



All the remaining bones in this collection belonged to the Wild Turkey 

 {Meleagris gallopavo) and apparently to the same adult individual. They 

 are thoroughly fossilized and as fragmentary parts of bones, more or less 

 perfect. In color they are generally of a pale cream white, blotched and 

 otherwise rather sparingly marked with deep brown and rusty. The right 

 coracoid is slightly chipped, otherwise nearly perfect. This is likewise 

 true of the distal third of the right ulna found in the lot, and the distal 

 portions of the two carpometacarpi, of which there is the lower two-thirds 

 of the right tarso-metatarsus. 



These turkey bones all came from the Pleistocene cavern deposits at 

 Ocala, Florida, and bear the following original numbers, to wit: 7799, 

 7800, 7934, 7946, and 7954. They will probably be added to the collec- 

 tions of the U. S. National Museum, where they now are, and I have the 

 permission of Dr. Sellards to publish the above notes in regard to them. 



Among these I find a vertebra of the neck of a turtle — the ninth in 

 the chain, which, in this genus, is the one articulating with the first co- 

 ossified vertebra of the carapace. It came from a large-sized, soft-shelled 

 turtle that apparently belonged to a specimen of Apideretes, possibly ferox, 

 the group to which the fossil soft-shelled turtles are usually referred, while 

 the form of that genus now found in Florida is Trionyx ferox or Amyda 

 ferox. The last free vertebra of the neck in these turtles is very differently 

 formed from any other in that section of the spine. It is spreading and 

 much flattened from above downward. This is the fossil vertebra we have, 

 and it is my present intention to describe it elsewhere; it is only noted 

 here in that we may know what other animals were in existence in Florida 

 at the time the Pleistocene Wild Turkeys flourished there. — Robert 

 Wilson Shtjfeldt, Washington, D. C. 



A Note Concerning Bird Mortality. — On December 24, 1917, at 

 Norwalk, Conn., while taking a Christmas census for ' Bird-Lore,' I had an 

 experience so unusual and interesting that I believe it worth putting on 

 record. In the course of the morning I noted a Field Sparrow (Spizella 

 pusilla pusilla) flying from one clump of bushes to another, and chipping 

 rather excitedly. Not identifying it immediately I watched it for some 

 time. It finally flew into the low hanging limb of a Norway spruce, and 

 then dropped vertically down into a hollow in the snow, where I could not 

 see it. The chipping noise ceased, and though I watched for some time, 

 the bird did not reappear. I finally walked cautiously up to the hollow 

 under the spruce limb, and found the bird lying upon its back. I picked 

 it up. Every muscle in its body was rigid. Its feet were extended up 

 straight and its eyes were open wide. Its breast was inflated as though 

 the lungs were filled with air that it could not expel. Thinking it suffer- 

 ing from cold, I tried to warm it in my hand. Soon its muscles relaxed, 

 its eyes closed, its head drooped and it died in my hand. 



