^68 SiU'FiiLDT on Fossil North Aiiuricini Birds. |OcU)bui 



Fossil bones of two extinct Eagles were also found in the col- 

 lection. One of tliese, which I have called Aqulla pliogryps^ 

 appeared to have been a large species of slender build, and may 

 have had rather the habits of an active Falcon than those of the 

 more sluggish Eagles, such as the common white-headed one for 

 example. The other extinct form I have called Aqtiila sodalts, 

 and it was a smaller form than Aqnila pliogryps^ being more 

 nearly affined to our existing types, — perhaps to such a species as 

 tiie Golden Eagle for example. 



Bubo virgbiiiDuts^ among the Striges, is represented liy an 

 almost perfect specimen of the carpo-metacarpus and a toe-joint. 

 The former is identical in character in all particulars with the 

 corresponding bone in a skeleton of B. v. siibarcticus with 

 which I have compared it. 



Remains of Passeres were not abundant in the collection, and 

 1 found but two extinct species, both of which are new to science. 

 They were a Blackbird and a Raven. These I have designated 

 respectively as Scolecophagus affinis undCorvi/s amzectens. The 

 last named was a Raven considerably smaller than anv of our 

 present day Ravens as found in the avifauna of the ITnited States. 



When piinted, my memoir describing this very valuable collec- 

 tion will make some seventy-five quarto pages, and be illustrated 

 by figures on stone of all the fossil bones of the new or otherwise 

 interesting forms. 



The work will of course take into consideration a great deal 

 which will be impossible to set forth here, as the present paper 

 ])retends to nothing more than a notice of the collection as a 

 whole. What I have given, however, will be sufficient for the 

 thoughtful student in ornithology to gain some idea of the avifauna 

 as far back as the Pliocene, in so far as what is now called South- 

 western Oregon, was concerned. It will be observed that even in 

 that horizon many of the species were identical with those now 

 existing, and in the case of the extinct ones, they were forms that 

 in the majority of instances, would not be out of place even in our 

 present day avifauna, belonging as they did in most instances to 

 modern genera and groups. 



