634 R. W. SHUFELDT 
wing. They are long and rather narrow, but quite as well pre- 
served, and in precisely the same way as those described for Arch- 
aeopteryx by Professor Vogt in a previous paragraph. In this 
specimen, too, there is evidence of some smaller feathers collected 
about a point from which the primaries diverge. It would appear 
that maceration had far progressed before these four feathers 
settled down at the place where they eventually fossilized, and 
that they had been held together by a single piece of integument 
at a point common to their attachment to the four apices of the 
calami. This might lkewise have happened had some animal, 
in devouring this bird, torn off the four feathers, all clinging to a 
single piece of skin, and that have become separated from the 
rest of the bird. These feathers belonged to a bird about the same 
size as, or one perhaps somewhat smaller than, the Palaeospiza 
bella of Allen, and it is quite possible that they may have come 
from the wing of an individual of that species (cf. Figs. 5 and 6). 
Both are from the Florissant formation of Colorado. 
As it appeared to be eminently desirable that I compare these 
feathers with those beautifully preserved ones of Palaeospiza bella, 
I made the attempt to borrow the original specimen of that bird, 
which I was given to understand was the property of the Boston 
Society of Natural History. In this I was disappointed; and it 
now appears that that famous slab and invaluable specimen has 
been Jost for a number of years. Only recently, both Dr. J. A. 
Allen—its original describer—and Dr. Glover M. Allen, secretary 
of the aforesaid society, have written me that, after several most 
exhaustive searches, not a trace of the specimen can be found, and 
no clue has been discovered leading to its place of concealment, 
or in whose possession it was last. 
Through the kindness of the librarian of the United States 
Geological Survey, I was enabled to borrow there a copy of Dr. 
Allen’s description of his Palaeospiza bella, and this is now before 
me.t As but few ornithologists in this country and abroad know 
tJ. A. Allen, ‘Description of a Fossil Passerine Bird from the Insect-bearing 
Shales of Colorado,” Bull. U.S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. (F. V. Hayden, U.S. Geol.-in- 
Charge), IV, No. 2, Washington, May 3, 1878, pp. 443-45; Plate I; Figs. 1 and 2. 
A most interesting brochure. 
