620 A'. U. SHVFELDT 



uptMi siibsoqucMit oxamination. was conviiu"0(l that he saw other 

 features presented by it, which led him to say, on the same page 

 just quoted, that it was one of an extinct genus of ''short-billed, 

 stout-legged birds attaining the size of a gallinule, rail, or small 

 coot, and resembling these forms in general character." 



As the supersuborder Ralliformes has no especial alTmity with 

 the supersuborder Ciallifm-mes, this last statement distinctly con- 

 tratlicts Dr. ivistman's first reference as citetl above.* 



As will be observed by an examination of Fig. i, the skeleton 

 of this fossil presents many evidences of compression. Most of the 

 bones are of a dark chocolate color, and all of them are consider- 

 ably darker than the pale-gray matrix in wdiich the specimen is 

 imbed(.leel. Some of the bones have retaineil their normal positions 

 in articulatioi^. while the remainder have, for the most part, been 

 n\ore or less dislodged from the places they occupied in life. Some 

 were either not in sight at all, or became, to a greater or less extent, 

 removed from the skeleton before the process of fossilization com- 

 menced. An excellent example of this is seen in a rib which lies 

 ren\o\\Hl from the nearest bone to it in the skeleton by a distance 

 of iS mm. 



This specimen was evidentl>- ''cleaneil up" by an ignorant col- 

 lector, and in his n\isguided attempts to improve it by scraping, he 

 has terribly mutilated the most important parts in sight. Thus the 

 skull has been practically ruined, and the cervical vertebrae ground 

 down so as to present n\erel>' a longitudinal sectional aspect. Dr, 

 Kastman, in commenting upon this, says: "Depredations of this 

 nature are wdioll>' inexcusable and cannot be too se\erely cen- 

 sured" ip. 55). 



The head and cervical portion of the spine are seen upon direct 

 left lateral view, and are but slightly elevated above the level of 



» K. W. Shulcklt, ".\u .Vrnuvgciuont of tlie Families and the Higher Groups of 

 Birds," Atmr. Nat., XXXVIII, Nos. 45S-5t> (Novembei-Docember, 1904), 833-57.' 

 The relation of these gronps is given on v^ 85 .\ Dr. Kastman asked me if I did not 

 think there was "some tinamou in the specimen." To which I replied that I did not. 

 .\s a matter of fact, there is far less tinamovi in this extinct fossil bird than there is 

 gallinule. The shoulder-girdle, sternum, and pelvis of a tii\amou are eiitirel.\- dilTerent, 

 as may be appreciated by comparing the skeleton of Xotliuro vuictilosa Temm. with 

 Fig. I of the present article. I figured a skeleton of this tinamou in the article here 

 cited (Fig. 3, p. v^o^^^- 



