Voi_-Y'] SavFBhDT, Fossil Birds' Eggs. 8l 



subject, and, apart from the descriptions of fossil and sub-fossil 

 eggs of certain large struthious birds of the East Indies, Mada- 

 gascar, and elsewhere in that ])art of the Old World, I have come 

 across but one prominent paper from the pen of an American 

 scientist describing the fossil egg of a bird found within the limits 

 of the United States. It is the only paper cited by Professor 

 Hay in his bulletin on fossil vertebrates, where a special section 

 is made for its reception.* This paper is by Dr. Farrington, 

 published some twenty years ago,t and is now a well-known con- 

 tribution to paheornithologists. As stated in the title of that 

 paper, the egg described in it is from South Dakota, and Dr. 

 Farrington believed it to be "a petrified egg of an Anatine bird 

 of Early Miocene age." One of the plates to the article gives the 

 egg, natural size, in three different views, while in the other we 

 have the specimen compared with the eggs of the following 

 species: — Anas f. fulvigula. Sterna fuscata, Tympanuchus a. 

 americanus, Charadrius d. dominicus, Florida coerulea, Podilymbus 

 podiceps, and Phalacrocorax p. robustus. Of all these, it certainly 

 more closely resembles that of the Duck, especially in form and 

 size ; of course, there is no telling what the colour of this fossil egg 

 may have been. And, as it has the typical broad ovate form, 

 it may have been laid, not only by some Duck, but by a great 

 many other species of birds belonging to widely-separated 

 families. Then, too, we must remember that a very large number 

 of birds may have become utterly e.xtinct since the parent of this 

 egg laid it in the " Early Miocene age." 



With respect to form and size of the eggs of all species of birds 

 now in existence, they vary in these particulars, often in the case 

 of eggs belonging to the same clutch. Where we have not colour 

 to assist us, it would sometimes be difficult to identify eggs laid 

 by the same species of bird, and frequently it is quite impossible. 

 Domestic chickens of the present day lay eggs agreeing exactly, 

 with respect to size and form, with the fossil one described by Dr. 

 Farrington, and this is also the case with the Sage Cock {Centro- 

 cercits urophasianus) of the western plains. For instance, the 

 egg of the Sage Cock, figured by Bendire and numbered 12 on 

 plate iii. of his " Life-Histories of North American Birds " (Spec. 

 Bull. No. i), measures exactly the same size as the fossil egg 

 here being considered. In other words, apart from the matter 

 of colour, that egg of Centrocercus has exactly the same form and 

 size as the fossil egg in the Field Columbian Museum. This being 



* Hay, O. P., " Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of 

 North America." Dept. Int. Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv., No. 179. Washington : 

 Government Printing Office, 1902, p. 537. 



t Farrington, Oliver Cummings, Ph.D. (Curator Dept. of Geology), " A 

 Fossil Egg from South Dakota." Field Columbian Museum, Publication 

 35, Geological Series, vol. i.. No. 5. Chicago, U.S., April, 1899, pp. 193-200, 

 plates XX., xxi., two text cuts. This article was reviewed in The Osprey 

 (vol. iv., Oct., 1899, pp. 29, 30), and in closing his remarks the reviewer 

 said : — " Indeed, it is not evident why the egg is supposed to have been 

 a Duck's, Dr. Farrington and Mr. Bryan to the contrary notwithstanding." 



