THE FOSSIL AVIFAUNA OF THE 
389 
A STUDY OF THE FOSSIL AVIFAUNA OF THE EQUUS BEDS OF THE OREGON DESERT. 
By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D. 
Early in March, 1891, Professor E. D. Cope placed in my hands for description 
two collections of fossil Birds. Both of these were obtained at Fossil and Silver 
Lakes in Oregon. The first consisted of some seventy or eighty s^jeciinens belonging 
to the private cabinets of Professor Thomas Condon of Eugene City, Oregon, and 
were collected by him in the aforesaid region ; the second, and by far the larger col- 
lection, consisting of several hundred specimens, belonging to Profes.sor Coja* himsedf, 
having also been collected at Silver Lake either by himself or his assistants. 
Soon after these collections came into my possession I bestowed uiM)n them a 
preliminary examination of quite a superficial charachw. Nevertheless it was suf- 
ficient to enable me to present the results of such an initiatory study in a pajx'r 
entitled “On a Collection of Fossil Birds from the E(pms Beds of Oregon” which 
was read by me before the Biological Society of Washington at its regular 
meeting on the evenmg of the 21st of March, 1891, and was subseipiently publisluul 
in the April number (of the same year) of The American Naturalist without change 
of title (pp. 359-362). 
Professor Cope, prior to submitting the.se collections to me fur a description, 
had given an account of three new forms of birds they represented and had 
determined some seven others as having belonged to species considered by him t<j 
be identical with species now existing in our avifauna. Those accounts have Ikhmi 
published in various places, and it has been from such .sources, taken in connection 
with my conversations with their author, that most of my first infonnation of the 
kinds of birds that flourished in those times, and all my information alxmt the ivgion 
in which they were procured, was derived. With respect to my knowledge of tlie 
locality, it was principally obtained from his paper in. the issue of The American 
Naturalist of November, 1889, entitled “ The Silver Lake of Oregon ami its Region ” ; 
and the other papers I shall refer to fixrther on. 
On the 13th of March, 1891, Professor Condon wrote me fr<»m Eugime Cit\-. 
Oregon, giving me permission to retain in my keeping such specimens as Ixolongmd 
to him,’ until the entire collection was described and printed. My thanks are hen- 
tendered him for his courtesy and assistance. 
THE SILVER LAKE REGION. 
Two fi-ures of Silver Lake are presented in Cope’s article in The American 
Naturalistl^med above, and I learn from still other sources that that shec-t of 
