go Shufeldt, Fossil Birds' Eggs. [znd^Oct. 



certainty, be determined. Its colour is of a medium buffy shade, 

 such as we see in the case of some eggs of the existing domestic 

 fowls (Gallus), and it is perfectly plain and unspotted. 



Finally, there is shown in figs. 14 and 15 on Plate V. a 

 moderately thin, fossilized, calcareous coat (in two pieces), that 

 evidently, at one time, overlaid either a somewhat pointed, ovate 

 egg of a medium-sized bird, or a concretion possessing a similar 

 form. This is also from the same locality in France (Oligocene, 

 St. Gerand de Puy). How such a coating became detached with- 

 out breaking up or having any of the fossilized egg-shell adhere 

 to its internal surface, it is difficult to say, though I am quite 

 confident that this is what this specmien represents. The interior 

 of the concave aspect is shown in fig. 15 of the plate, with the 

 apex resting on the plane (grass) upon which I photographed it. 



Whether there are any other fossil birds' eggs in the museums 

 or in private collections anywhere in the United States I am 

 unable to say at this writing. Dr. Charles Schuchert, Curator of 

 the Geological Division of the Peabody Museum of Yale University, 

 wrote me, on the 2nd of June, 1915, that there were no such 

 specimens in the palseontological collection of that institution, and 

 this may be the case with other museums. It is rather remark- 

 able that the few I have before me at this time are all from the 

 Oligocene — those discovered in France, as well as the one from 

 this country. No fossil eggs of birds, I believe, were found in the 

 great Pleistocene lakes of Oregon, where Cope and others collected 

 so many fossil bones of the water-birds of those times, and which 

 were described by me many years ago in the Journal of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and elsewhere. 



Explanation of Plates. 



(Figures natural size unless otherwise stated, from photographs by 

 the author.) 



Plate I. 

 Fig. I.— Fossil Bird's Egg. (Cat. No. 8,262, Coll. U.S. Nat. Mus.) 



Nat. size. Photo, by the author of a specimen collected 



by Mr. J. W. Gidley. 

 Fig. 2. — Same as fig. i above. Photo, by the author; nat. size. 



View of the shell side. 

 Fig. 3. — Same as figs, i and 2 above ; nat. size. Photo, by the 



author. View of the side where the fossilized internal 



contents may best be seen. 

 Fig. 4. — What appears to be an imitation of a fossil egg of a bird. 



(No. 4,891, Coll. U.S. Nat. Mus.) Nat. size. Photo, by the 



author. (See also Plate V., fig. 16.) 



Plate II. 

 Fig. 5. — Cross section of the shell of an existing hird., Crex globicera ; 

 magnified about 200 diameters. Preparation by Mr. J. W. 

 Gidley. (See fig. 6.) 



I 



