No.2.] SCUDDEK ON PALEONTOLOGY OF FLORISSANT, COLORADO. 295 



there is no sign of a head on the 30 or 40 specimens examined, although 

 the anterior portion of the alin}entary canal appears to be extensile, 

 being frequently preserved as protruding beyond the limits of the body 

 and armed at the tip with a broken chitinous ring. There are no other 

 mouth parts nor signs of eyes or antennce. The abdomen is furuished 

 at tip with a set of harder converging parts, which look as if they 

 served the purpose of dragging the body backward. Larvae of any 

 sort are exceedingly rare in the Florissant deposits, and there is no 

 group known to me to which this seems to bear any similitude. There 

 are sometimes faint indications of several joints to the abdomen, but 

 when closely examined these appear to be illusory; and this would 

 certainly exclude it from the Crustacea, unless indeed it belonged, as 

 has been suggested to me by Professor Hyatt, to a parasitic type. It 

 is from 8 to 10°^™ long. 



Animal remains besides those of insects are rare at Florissant. The 

 most abundant is a species of thin-shelled Planorbis, which is not un- 

 common, and always occurs in a more or less crushed condition ; it is 

 the only mollusk yet fouod there (excepting a single small specimen of 

 a bivalve, referred to above in the section from the southern lake), and 

 according to Dr. 0. A. White is probably uudescribed, although very 

 similar to a species found in the Green Eiver shales, differing from it 

 principally in its smaller size. 



Fishes lank next in numbers. Eight species have been found, be- 

 longing to four genera ; of Amiidae we have Amia scutata and A. dicty- 

 ocephala; of Oyprinodonts, Triclioplianes foUarum and T, Copei ; of 

 Catostomidae, Amyzon pandatum, A. commune^ and A. fusiforme ; and 

 of Siluridae, Bhineastes pectinatus. All the species have been described 

 by Cope* excepting T. Copei^ which was published by Osborn, Scott, and 

 Speir. 



Several bird's feathers have been found in these beds, and a single 

 tolerably perfect Passerine bird, with bones and feathers, has been de- 

 scribed by Mr. J. A. Allen under the name of Falaeospiza hella, and 

 admirably illustrated by Blake. No other figure of a Florissant animal 

 has yet been published. Besides these, Professor Cope has just de- 

 scribed a plover, Charedinus sheppardianus, and writes that a finch is 

 also found in these beds. 



The plants, although less abundant than the insects, are exceedingly 

 numerous, several thousand specimens having already passed through 

 the hands of Mr. Leo Lesquereux. Of these he has published 37 species 

 in his Tertiary Flora,t about two-fifths of which are considered iden- 

 tical with forms from the European Tertiaries. Of other specimens 

 •which he received after the publication of that volume, he has already 

 given a cursory account in the annual report of Dr. Hayden's survey for 

 187G. He has also mentioned others in his review of Saporta's Monde 



*Scc Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. Toit. 2d ser., No. 1, ])p. 3-5, 1675. 

 t Report U. S. G«ol. Surv. Terr., vol. 7. 4to, Wasliiugton, 1S78. 



