290 Shtjpeldt, Remains of Hesperornis. [july 



THE FOSSIL REMAINS OF A SPECIES OF HESPERORNIS 

 FOUND IN MONTANA. 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M.D. 



Plate XVIII. 



Early in November, 1914, Mr. Charles W. Gilmore, who has 

 charge of the fossil birds and reptiles in the Division of Palaeontology 

 of the United States National Museum, Washington, D.C., sent 

 me a fossil vertebra, which was collected when he was associated 

 with Dr. T. W. Stanton on an expedition in Montana during the 

 early autumn of 1914. This vertebra, when received by me, was 

 labeled thus: 



"Coniornis altus Marsh, Lumbar vertebra, Dog Creek, 1 mi. 

 above its mouth, Fergus County, Montana. Cretaceous Clagget 

 formation (upper yellowish sandstone) September 26, 1914." T. 

 W. Stanton, C. W. Gilmore. All. No." 



There being no proper material in the collections of the U. S. 

 National Museum wherewith to compare this vertebra, I studied it 

 as best I could through comparing the fossil bone with the figures 

 given by Marsh in his Odontornithes. This comparison convinced 

 me of the fact that the vertebra belonged to some medium-sized 

 Hesperornis; further, that it more closely resembled the 23d 

 vertebra of the spinal column of Hesperornis regalis than it did any 

 other vertebra, and I was therefore led to believe that it was the 

 corresponding vertebra of some species of Hesperornis, smaller 

 than H. regalis, probably of a species heretofore undescribed. 



As I knew that Doctor Richard S. Lull, of the Peabody Museum, 

 was engaged upon a study of the Hcsperornithida', at the time this 

 bone came to me for study, I determined to refer it to him for an 

 opinion. This I did with a letter dated at Washington, D. C, the 

 10th of November, 1914. 



Doctor Lull very kindly made an exhaustive study of this fossil 

 vertebra, and returned it to me with a letter of transmittal, dated 

 November 20, 1914. At the close of his communication on the 

 subject, he says: "I will lend you a cast of the 23d vertebra, of 



