HKDS DK THE (JKEGDN DESERT. 
1 * without regard to the species or individuals 
by >ly ''“'"1..^,"^ „|„,c!men »a8 most completely fossUD-ed, abeotetely 
to winch they xdon>?i«l. y 1 indeed, exhibited their characters 
fn^. fnm. ! prepared bones of recent birds. In color they were 
... nnniy cux-s as well a« frts 3 11 instances. Many of them were 
r ..avm.juet been ..bed i„ dea.. 
VII .f the'iu were very brittle and easily broken by a slight blow. , , , . , 
I mml u,K.n e.^mining the collection that Professor Condon had selected 
hUH,KH-imens with es,K.iial rc-gard to their being perfect and unbroken examples. 
They wen. ean.fully wnippe-d in cotton and paper, and as separate objects 
wen valuahle aa a means of comparison. The main collection. Professor Co^ s, was 
,mck.Hl in a nmnlx.r of separate Ixixes of various sizes, and some attempt l>a‘l ^n 
Inmle to i-lentify the lames Ix-yond the species he had already descnlx^d. fliose 
i,lentifientioiia were not altogether satisfactory to me, and in some instances they 
had again lxH.«ine mixed up. So, with his permission they were disivgarded, and 
the entin- mat*.rial iKdonging to him mixed in one mass in a large tray for identifi- 
study by the present writer. 8o much then for the character of the 
fiwsils and their condition. The bones ranged all the way from those of a size 
Udonging t 4 i ii v«*ry large swan to those which evidently had belonged to small 
imsn-rine tyjH.M. They were in all stages of completeness from slivers and fragments 
<»f all si/ea to laines cpiite iMrrfect in all their parts. 
vimion.s .viMUTKi) ix studyixXG such a collection. 
_ 9 
I’nifesaor (\»ik*’s part of the collection consisted of some 1500 Ixmes and frag- 
nieiita of lames, and by can.*fully going over it bone by bone, and piece by piece, I 
eliminated, lirst, all the fo.ssils that were not from birds. Ne.xt all the Ixmes that 
Isdongial t4> the same part of the skeleton, irrespective of family, genus or species, 
wen- ass4irt4xl out int4) separate lots. This threw all the vertebra, together in one 
hit, all the f4.niorn in another, all the coracoids in still another, and so on until 
the iiial4>rial was all oxlum.sted. 
K«illow iiig next in oixler came the identification of groups; this tcKik considcra- 
hh- time, ninl miuind uo little care. It also proved a check upon the first process 
mid C4.rnx’t4Ml such ermrs ms Imcl then been made. The division into groups 
ihmiandiMl the rigid comparison, Ixnie by bone, Avith the corresponding ones in the 
skclcl.ms of 1.11 the existing types of birds available. In this connection I am under 
great oldigat Kins to the U. 8. National Museum, and to Mr. Lucas of its Depart- 
of A„nlm„y, for tbc loan of mouy akeletona of birds to be- used 
»>.->terinl to tbe 
.\uer nil tins had beer 
^ coiacoms, lemora, tibio-tarsi and so forth 
:r,:ir:Tb::')::;;x:- 

