TVilliston.] Birds, 51 



" Species 2. Track number A. Divarication of the lateral 

 toes, 65° ; of the inner and middle toes, 35° ; of the middle and 

 outer toes, 35°; length of the inner toe, 2.6 inches; of the 

 middle toe, 3.5; of the outer toe, 3.1; of the foot, 3.75; dis- 

 tance between the tips of the lateral toes, 3.2 ; between the 

 inner and middle toes, 3.1 ; between the middle and outer toes, 

 2.2 ; projection of the middle toe beyond the others, 1.2 inches. 



" Track number B appears to be the left foot of the bird which 

 made number A, as the angle and length of the toes are the 

 same ; but the position of the inner toe standing so far back of 

 the others throws some doubt upon it. Number D may be the 

 track of still another species, or it may belong to species 1 ; it 

 is so indistinct that we cannot decide upon this point." The 

 letters refer to the four different impressions upon the slab. 



Later Mudge was led to believe that these prints were the 

 result of Indian work. 



In the Transactions of the Kansas Academy for 1888, p. 3, 

 Prof. F. H. Snow described more fully and figured a footprint 

 from the Dakota as follows : 28 



" During the past two years Mr. E. P. West has been assist- 

 ing the writer in the collection of geological specimens for the 

 University cabinets. In the month of August, 1885, he was so 

 fortunate as to discover, near Thompson's creek, in Ellsworth 

 county, Kansas, a single well-marked impression, which I be- 

 lieve to be a genuine bird track. The piece of rock containing 

 the impression was picked out from a pile of material which 

 had been removed from a well excavation forty-four feet in 

 depth. This well was sunk in the Dakota sandstone, and the 

 geological horizon of the bird track is about 200 feet below the 

 upper level of the Dakota rocks. The horizon of the bird track 

 appears to be identical with that of a fine series of dicotyled- 

 onous leaves obtained on Thompson's creek, at a distance of 

 about a mile and a half from the well. 



" The impression appears to have been made by the right foot 

 of some bird with elevated hind toe just reaching the ground 

 at its extremity, as in the modern snipes and other wading 



28. On the Discovery of a Fossil Bird Track in the Dakota Sandstone. 



