
84 THE FOSSIL REPTILES OF NEW JERSEY. 
high up the Little Blackfoot River, but did not succeed in 
killing one. 
SHELDRAKE (Mergus Americanus). I shot a female bird 
of this species at the highest camp on the Little Blackfoot 
River, near where it doubtless had raised a brood, as they 
seek such clear rapid streams for that purpose in the Cascade 
Mountains. M. serrator, the female of which is so much 
like this, has probably never been obtained far from the 
coast. 
WESTERN GREBE (Podiceps occidentalis). I found this 
Grebe on the Alkaline lakes of the Columbia Plain, October 
8th, about the same time of year that I obtained the first 
known specimen from near Walla Walla, in 1853. Its breed- 
ing place may be on the shores of these lakes. —7To be con- 
cluded. 

THE FOSSIL REPTILES OF NEW JERSEY. 
BY PROF. E. D. COPE. 

(Continued from Vol. I, page 30. 
WHILE grim and monstrous Dinosaurs ranged the forests 
and flats of the coast of the Cretaceous sea, and myriads of 
Gavials basked on the bars and hugged the shores, other 
races peopled the waters. The gigantic Mosasaurus, the 
longest of known reptiles, had few rivals in the ocean. 
These Pythonomorphs were the sea-serpents of that age, 
and their snaky forms and gaping jaws rest on better evi- 
dence than he of Nahant can yet produce. 
Ten species of this group are known from the Gisticeous 
beds of the United States, of which six have been found in 
New Jersey. Two others occur in Europe. In relative 
abundance of individuals, as well as of species, New Jersey 
is much in advance of any other part of the world where ex- 
cavations have been made. 





