44 University of Kansas Geological Survey. 



and the Fox Hills Cretaceous of Wyoming. Laopteryx, the sup- 

 posed bird from the Jurassic of Wyoming, was founded upon 

 very incomplete remains, and is, in all probability, not a bird, 

 but a small Dinosaurian reptile. 



Twenty species of birds have been described from the Ameri- 

 can Cretaceous, the larger number of which are from the Kan- 

 sas Cretaceous. Not a few of these are based upon very slight 

 material, and it is not at all improbable that future fortunate 

 discoveries will unite some of these and at the same time add 

 new forms to the number already known. 



Bird remains, in Kansas, are, as elsewhere, among the rarest 

 of the vertebrate fossils. One is likely to search weeks, and 

 even months, without finding a single bone, even fragmentary. 

 Among the thousands of specimens of vertebrates that have 

 been collected in Kansas, not more than 175 of birds, of all 

 kinds, have hitherto been discovered. 



BIRDS OF THE NIOBRARA CRETACEOUS. 



The first specimens of birds known from Kansas were ob- 

 tained by the expedition of Professor Marsh in 1870. In the 

 following year a much more complete specimen of a Hesperornis 

 was obtained by another expedition in charge of Professor 

 Marsh, and, in 1872, still other specimens. 



By far the most important specimen of these early years, if 

 not the most important of all those succeeding, as well as the 

 one from which the discovery of the dentition was made, was 

 one discovered by the late Professor Mudge, and sent by him 

 to Professor Marsh. It was found by him near Sugar Bowl 

 Mound, in northwestern Kansas, in 1872, and was first de- 

 scribed by Marsh in October of that year under the name Ich- 

 thyornis dispar. 



An incident related to me by Professor Mudge in connection 

 with this specimen is of interest. He had been sending his 

 vertebrate fossils previously to Professor Cope for determina- 

 tion. Learning through Professor Dana that Professor Marsh, 

 who as a boy had been an acquaintance of Professor Mudge, 

 was interested in these fossils, he changed the address upon the 



