SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I45 



Fig. 2. — Dorsal view of the cranium of a common loon, Gavia immer, from the 

 Pleistocene of Maryland. Natural size. 



the transverse width indicated is greater. While the largest skulls of 

 immer are close to adamsii the smaller ones appear distinct. The 

 specimen under identification agrees with the medium-sized and 

 smaller samples of immer and is identified as that species. 



The occurrence on Chesapeake Bay is an additional Pleistocene 

 record for Gavia immer, which has been reported previously from 

 deposits of that age in California and Florida. 



III. THE WHOOPING CRANE, GRUS AMERICANA, IN MICHIGAN 



In a recent visit to the Chicago Natural History Museum I 

 noted a Pleistocene bone identified tentatively as this species, which 

 Dr. Rainer Zangerl has kindly placed in my hands for study. The 

 specimen is a left tarsometatarsus of a juvenile individual which 

 apparently had developed the full length of this segment of the bone, 

 but in w^hich the upper end was not fully ossified, as the surface of 

 the articulation is not completely formed. The shaft also is slender 

 with its outlines rounded, less angular than in adult specimens, and 

 the entire bone presents the slightly roughened spongy appearance 

 that marks an immature stage. The distal trochlea and the talon both 

 are broken and missing, but it is possible to ascertain the length from 

 the anterior end to the distal foramen, which equals that of modern 

 adult tarsometatarsi in the U.S. National Museum Collections. It is 



