CHAPTER XVI 



BIRDS 



IN THE Deseado beds, birds occur in small numbers, 

 Ameghino having described four species. The remains 

 are generally found as isolated bones, and it is hard to as- 

 sociate the separate finds one with another. Beside this 

 there are very few birds of the early Tertiary so known, 

 as to make separate bones indicate the family or generic 

 relationships. 



In the overlying Patagonian beds, a considerable number 

 of species have been found, mostly of penguin-like birds, 

 the various genera and species being based on the tarso- 

 metatarsus. On the upper surface of the Deseado, we 

 found several bones of this penguin-like type, but in all 

 cases they were washed out, so that I have considered them 

 as having come from the Patagonian. 



However, we found eight specimens of birds in place in 

 the Deseado, most of which are clearly land birds and 

 belong to genera which are closely related to genera of 

 the Santa Cruz, especially the two genera Phororhacus 

 and Pelecyornis, and of sizes equal to the largest represen- 

 tatives of the two genera. 



Phororhacus Ameghino 



Phororhacus Amegh., 1887, Bol. Mus. La Plata, t. I, p. 24. 



Phororhacus Amegh., 1889, Act. Acad. Nac. Cienc. Cordoba, t. VI, p. 659. 



Phororhacus Amegh., 1895, Bol. Inst. Geog. Argen., t. 15, p. 10 of separate. 



This is a group of large land birds, comparable in size to 

 the great moasof New Zealand which apparently arose, flour- 

 ished, and died out in South America. In the Santa Cruz 

 they were abundant, the best known form being P. inflatus, 

 a bird some six feet high ; while the largest, P. longissimus, 



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