.>(' Srufdldt, Contributions t<> Avian Paloontology, [j&n. 



die 25th of April, 1912, Dr. George !•' Baton wrote me that the 

 material, upon which M, alius is based, " is in the Peabody Museum 

 (type) with other types <>r fossil Mcleagrida." 



Cope's description of M. superbus occurs in the Trans. A.mer, 

 Phil, Soc. (N S \i\ . Pt. I. 1870, 239); it being i verj careful and 

 detailed piece o\' work, based on the material before him, which is 

 said to have consisted of " 8 nearly perfect righl tibia, an imperfect 

 left one, a left femur with the condyles broken off, and a right 

 coracoid bone, with the distal articular extremity imperfect." 

 In m\ opinion, there would be ample here u* establish ;i fossil spe- 

 cies of bird, especially if placed in the hands of a good comparative 

 avian osteologist, Personally, I have never seen the material upon 

 which .U. suptrbii was established; but, judging from its character 

 and its amount, 1 am strongly inclined to believe that Professor 

 Cope had a fossil American Turkej before him, at least the fossil 

 remains i^i one. 



Professor Marsh would never allow me to examine and compare 

 the fossil hones which he described as those he suspected of belong- 

 ing to extinct turkeys, and 1 never did so during his life-time, 

 Several years after he had attempted to establish M. atius (now 



known to he only a synonxni i^ M sup,rb,i Cope), 1 informed him 

 that I was not prepared to accept his conclusions in the matter; 

 and finally it came to pass that I published in B paper what 1 

 desired to set forth on the subject. This paper was entitled "On 



Fossil Bird hones Obtained h\ Expeditions of the University of 

 Pennsylvania from the Bone Taxes of Tennessee" v American 

 Naturalist, inly. L897, 645 650); and, in connection with other 



things said in it, 1 pointed out that among the hones found, many 



of them belonged to M 



Admitting the establishment of Mehag s of Cope, we 



have now to discuss the two other species. These arc. as slated 



above, I s (1871), and M (1872), both 



recorded h\ Professor C Marsh. In my above cited paper 

 on the Tennessee fossil bird-bones, p. 648, 1 have commented 



on the Validity of these species as follows: "Professor Marsh at 



different times has described three species o( alleged extinct 

 Turkex s. \ i . | ' v ,. but 1 am 



\cr\ sceptical indeed in regard to the validity oi t ho first-named, 



