1912] Miller: Pacific Coast Avian Palaeontology 



79 



of the birds from that region. Our knowledge of the various 

 western horizons has, however, been extended by later investiga- 

 tors in stratigraphy and in the correlation of faunas, with the 

 result that these beds are now proven unquestionably to be of 

 Pleistocene age. Such change of interpretation alters materially 

 the significance of discoveries announced by Cope and by Shu- 

 feldt in that it reduces appreciably the extent to which several 

 existing genera are known to .run back in time. 



The various descriptions of this region are summarized in a 

 concise and very lucid paragraph or two by Osborn 12 from which 

 the following may well be quoted : 



' ' One hundred and fifty miles northwest of the old Lahontan shore 

 lines in the heart of the Oregon Desert of the great basin, and twenty 

 miles northeast of Silver Lake, there is a slight depression in the desert 

 perhaps twenty acres in extent marked Christmas Lake on the maps, to 

 which Cope gave the name ' Fossil Lake. ' This ' Silver, ' ' Christmas, ' or 

 ' Fossil ' lake region was successively explored by Condon, Cope, Sternberg 

 (who made the chief collections), and Eussel (1882). . . . Though actually 

 twenty miles distant from Silver Lake, the rich fauna of mammals and 

 birds found has been described by Copeis and Shufeldt, and referred to by 

 Gilbert, as the fauna of the Silver Lake Equus beds. . . . 



"Proof that the country was partly fluviatile and partly wooded is 

 afforded by the presence of the muskrat (Fiber), the otter (Lutra), the 

 beaver ( Castor fiber), and the giant beaver (Castoroides) . 



" .... The bird life was very abundant and not very dissimilar from 

 what we might observe at any of the alkaline lakes of the West, resorted 

 to at the present day by wild fowl during their migrations. Great flocks 

 of swans (Cygnus paloregomis) , geese (Anser condoni), and ducks were 

 there; a cormorant (Phalaerocorax) was among the rarities; among the 

 species of grebe (Podiceps occidentalis) is one still inhabiting this region. 

 There were also coots (Fuliea minor) and herons (Ardea paloccidentalis) . 

 Other forms of birds include two species of grouse, crows, and eagles. The 

 strangest figure upon the scenes among the birds was a true flamingo 

 (Phoenicopterus copei). The northernmost distribution of flamingoes at 

 the present is southern Florida and the Bahama Islands (lat. 27° N). 

 Shufeldt concludes that the climate might w T ell be compared with that of 

 Florida or the lower part of Louisiana, that the vegetation was fully as 

 luxuriant as it now is in those parts, and that the palms were abundantly 

 represented. This conclusion as to a Floridan climate and the existence 

 of palms is, however, very questionable. Brown" observes that the South 

 American flamingoes (Phoenicopterus chilensis) migrate as far south as 



« Osborn. H. F., The Age of Mammals, p. 458. 



is Cope, E. D., The Silver Lake of Oregon and its Region, Am. Nat., vol. 

 23, pp. 970-982, 1*89. 



i* Mr. Barnum Brown in a note to the author [Osborn]. 



