R. W. Shufeldt—Exztinct Bird from South Carolina. 343 
the plant-beds occur appears, according to Mr. Warren’s account, to 
be cut through by the buried channel, whereas the evidence at 
Barnwell is in favour of the view that the beds belong to the deposits 
filling a channel of that nature. Whether that be so or not, the 
significant feature is the similarity of the floras of the two districts. 
Mr. Reid permits us to state that in the case of the Barnwell beds 
‘the assemblage is essentially that of the Lea Valley”’. 
The occurrence of this flora in' low-level gravels in the Lea and 
Cam Valleys encourages us to hope that it will be discovered else- 
where, and it is very desirable that the lowest Pleistocene gravels of 
other river-valleys should be examined for similar deposits. 
Ill.—New Extinct Brrp From Sourm Caronina. 
By R. W. SHUFELDT. 
(PLATE XV.) 
ARLY in January, 1916, Dr. O. P. Hay, of Washington, D.C., 
referred to me for description the fossil bone of a large bird that 
had been discovered in the eastern part of South Carolina some time 
previously. This specimen I at once recognized as the lower extremity 
of the right femur of some bird belonging to a species much larger 
than any existing form in the United States. I find this specimen to 
be thoroughly fossilized and of a dull-black colour, the edges of both 
condyles being considerably chipped off. On the antero-internal aspect 
the shaft appears to be cut away as if by some shaving implement. 
This, and where the shaft is broken nearly squarely across above, 
- exposes a filling of a dense, very hard, pale-grey matrix, with a grain 
as fine as clay. Judging from this there should be no doubt but that 
this femur was a thoroughly pneumatic one in the living bird, and 
that the thickness of the osseous wall of the shaft was by no means 
great, as may be appreciated by examining the figures on the 
accompanying Plate XV. 
~ Upon measuring, I find the extreme length of this specimen to be 
75 millimetres, and its greatest transverse width below (intercondylar), 
40 millimetres. Antero-posteriorly, the external condyle measures 
25 millimetres (the inner lip of the fibular cleft), and the corresponding 
diameter of the inner condyle is about the same. No especial effects 
of pressure or distortion from the same mark this fragment, which is, 
in every particular, quite typically ornithic in character. Superiorly, 
the shaft is nearly cylindrical; but, immediately below the point of 
fracture, begins to expand and to become, antero-posteriorly, flattened 
and much broadened, until it terminates in its condylar enlargements. 
In front, the intercondylar or ‘‘rotular channel’’ does not extend up 
the shaft beyond the condylar ridges, while posteriorly the popliteal 
area exhibits but little concavity, the whole being much in the same 
plane. There is, however, an independent excavation immediately 
above the internal condyle upon this aspect of the bone. 
The external condyle is subcircular in outline upon its outer aspect, 
while the usual fibular cleft or notch is deeply unpaged upon its 
posterior aspect (Fig. 4). 
