<>'_ Smiiinr, (\>niriluttituis /<> Avion Pahontology. [jan, 



w hile no such bones occurred in the great muss of fossil bird bones 

 From the Oregon desert.' 



Believing that things might have changed :i little since the time 

 Professor Marsh declined to alloy me to examine the fragments of 

 fossil hones upon which li* 1 had attempted to establish three extinct 

 species of Meleagrta, a matter of some fifteen years ago, 1 wrote 

 i letter to Dr, GeorgcF. Baton (April 19, 1912) of the Yale Uni- 

 versity Museum, This brought a reply next day, and in this he 

 kiiiill\ stated that he would bring m\ request before Professor 

 Charles Schuchert, curator oi the Geological Department of the 

 IV.iUnlx Museum of Natural History o( Yale University. With 

 great promptness and marked courtesy, Professor Schuchert (May 

 2, 1912) sent me, 1\\ registered mail, Marsh's type specimens, 

 which lie had used in his descriptions of Mel - .:.,; and M. 

 C(7i' On the third o( Maj ,191 2, this material came safe to hand, 

 ami I immediately made a complete set of photographic negatives 

 of the specimens, 



1 desire to express m\ thanks for the courtesies and privileges 

 extended to me in this matter bj Dr, Eaton, Professor Schuchert 

 of ^* ale University . Drs fames E Benedict and Charles W. Rich- 

 mond of the I s National Museum, and Mr, Newton P. Scudder, 

 1 .ihrarian of the same institution. Through their aid, 1 was enabled 

 to examine and compare, w iih Marsh's fossils before me, a mounted 

 skeleton of a wild turkej (Af, ; '. sHwstris), taken many years ago 

 l>\ Professor Spencer F, Baird at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and to 

 consult all the existing literature on thesubject. Upon examining 



the materia) forwarded me by Professor Sehuehert after it came into 

 m\ hands. 1 found first, in a small tube elosed w iih a cork, tiio distal 

 end oi the right humerus of some large bird. The eorh was marked 

 on the side "T\po"; on top "Mrl. antiquut t 1 Kaneh. Col, 



G l> G, Aug, 6th, 1870." The specimen is pure white, thor- 

 oughly fossiliicd, and imperfect. The second of the two specimens 



< ShntVKii. K \\ \ Sin.tx Of UM Posstl \Ml':»m:) of the RqUUS tn\1s of I ho 



Jourtl W;>>1 \ ;M . So PhU* SOT '.' 1\ )S>.>'.\ pp 



P - \\ \\ p. \ . , ,. M>str*cts of tills memoir were published in 'The \uk' 



I \lll NO ! Oct 1801, pp ; . S t'ho \inoriO:u\ NsUnralist \. 



\\\ No •' ' \pr 1891. p ■■•..: ) No 19 Sept 1891, pp 818-8 



;>n,i oisowhmv VUhough no turkeys > >ve*ed anions these fossils, then 



