Vol. 6] Miller: Avifauna of Pleistocene Cave Deposits. 387 



or were gnawed by rodents before being unearthed, otherwise the 

 preservation is generally good, since the factor of weathering is 

 reduced to a minimum. As suggested by Sinclair, the method of 

 introduction of the bones is not easy in all cases to determine. 

 The great preponderance of birds belonging to ground- 

 dwelling species is at once noticeable. None of these bones occur 

 in their proper anatomical relations in the deposits. This con- 

 dition suggests that their bodies were either brought in as the 

 prey of predatory forms or else swept in by currents of surface 

 drainage. A number of owls and vultures also occur, both of 

 which groups commonly resort to caverns as places of abode. 

 Their remains, deposited in the outer chambers of the caverns, 

 would readily be swept on into more remote recesses by currents 

 of water. The anserine remains doubtless represent prey carried 

 into the cavern mouth by predatory forms such as the duck hawk 

 (Falco peregrinus) which in turn left its bones in a similar 

 position. 



Record of Species 



CATHARTES AURA (Linnaeus) 



The remains representing this species are somewhat frag- 

 mentary, yet are in each case perfectly determinable. An ulna, 

 a radius and a metacarpal are practically perfect and agree abso- 

 lutely with the corresponding parts of the Recent specimens at 

 hand. The single specimen of the species from Samwel Cave 

 is represented by the distal end of a radius only ; this part is 

 however markedly different from the same portion of the skeleton 

 in Catharista. The fragment is certainly of the genus Cathartes, 

 and there appears no reason for considering the species as dif- 

 ferent from the existing C. aura. The manubrial part of a 

 sternum and the distal end of a humerus represent the species 

 in Hawver Cave. 



The reason for the greater abundance of the species in Potter 

 Creek Cave is hard to determine. Some local condition must have 

 been the determining factor and not a scarcity of the species in 

 the region of Samwel Cave. The mammalian remains suggest 

 that the Potter Creek deposits represent an earlier time than 

 those of Samwel Cave. Cathartes was evidently abundant during 



