272 PALAEONTOLOGY OF CALIFOKNIA. 



tinguisked by its more anterior beaks, more rounded umbones, shorter hinge, less 

 prominent anterior end, and straighter base. It is larger than C. Nebrastensis, 

 and its more square form will distinguish it. 



GRYPH^EA, Lam. 



Perhaps no fossil in the Cretaceous formation of North America has been the 

 subject of more discussion, or has been more misunderstood than Gryphcea Pitcherii. 

 One of the principal reasons for this, is the fact that Dr. Morton described the 

 species from a very small specimen, and gave, in his "Synopsis," but a single 

 figure, which was not over characteristic. Dr. Boemer, after studying the fossils 

 of Texas, visited the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy to study Morton's 

 types, but did not succeed in finding the original specimen of this species, it having 

 been carelessly thrown aside, in a drawer full of duplicates and worthless frag- 

 ments, from which I had the good fortune to disinter it in 18G0or 1861, after years 

 of concealment. Failing to obtain more reliable information than that furnished 

 by Morton's short description and only passable figure, Dr. Eoemer applied the 

 name to a form very common in Texas, but which, as will be seen below, I believe 

 to be distinct from the true Pitcherii. 



In Emory's report of the Mexican Boundary Survey, Mr. Conrad indicated a 

 variety with strongly carinated and deflected beaks, under the name of O. Pitch- 

 erii var. navia. This is now universally considered by American Palaeontologists 

 as a distinct species. 



Professor Marcou, having advanced the theory of the Jurassic age of a large 

 portion of the rocks of the Southwest, and being inclined to bolster it up by forc- 

 ing evidence to its support, in 1855, in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of 

 France, and again in his Geology of North America, selected the " variety" navia 

 as Morton's, so called, typical form, and said the true Pitcherii was merely a 

 variety of the Jurassic dilatata, calling it the " variety Tucumcarii." In the latter 

 publication he gives excellent figures of navia under the name of Pitcherii, and 

 illustrates both the more common and the most dilated form of the true Pitcherii, 

 under the name of " var. Thicumcarii." My attention has been constantly directed 

 to the question for the last eight or nine years, and I have made it a point to study 

 critically, all the reputed specimens of Pitcherii, and of the allied forms that have 

 come within my reach, and have arrived at the conclusion that there have been 

 three well-marked and distinct species included under this name, as follows: 



G. Pitcherii, Morton. 



(Gryphaia Pitcherii, Morton ; Synopsis, p. 55, pi. 15, fig. 9.) 



(O. Pitcherii, Con. ; Emory's Keport, p. 155, pi. 21, fig. 3 a, b (exclus. c, d).) 



(Id., Con. ; loc. cit., pi. 10, fig. 2.) 



