66 University of California Publications in Geology [Vol. 7 



Material Available 



The material upon which studies of the west coast fossil 

 birds have been based has been collected from nine different 

 horizons, summarized as follows : 



Oligocexe 



Vancouver, B.C. One species (a single specimen). 

 Miocene 



Virgin Valley Beds, Virgin Valley, Nevada. One species. 

 Los Angeles, California. One species (a single specimen). 

 Pleistocene 



Potter Creek Cave, California. Sixteen species. 

 Samwel Cave, California. Nineteen species. 

 Hawver Cave, California. Twelve species. 



Rodeo Pleistocene, California. One species (a single specimen). 

 Rancho La Brca, California. Forty-nine species. 

 Fossil Lake, Oregon. Fifty-three species. 



The avian collections assembled at the University of Cali- 

 fornia represent seven of these localities. One of the seven is 

 identical with that studied by Cope and Shufeldt, namely, the 

 Fossil Lake region of Oregon. The remaining six collections, so 

 far as known to the writer, have not been studied previous to 

 the assumption of the task here in part recorded. Three or 

 four hundred specimens represent the bird remains from the 

 caves, and three or four thousand have been taken from the 

 asphalt at Rancho La Brea. 



So far as can be learned, the Oligocene horizon yielding 

 Cyphornis to Cope, and the Miocene, from which Lucas described 

 Mancalla, have yielded no other avian fossils. 



Oligocene Fauna 



Cyphornis magnus Cope is the only species known to the 

 coast from strata of possibly so great age. The form was de- 

 scribed by Cope from a single specimen, the proximal end of 

 a tarsometatarsus, the property of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada. The osteological characters displayed by the speci- 

 men are such as to have led Cope to assign the species 

 with some reserve to the family Pelecanidae. Interest 

 centers to some extent in a combination of the two characters, 



c Cope, E. D., Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Ser. 2, No. 9, p. 449. 1894. 



