UlvDS OK THE OREGON DESERT. 
. .. w- .....n. ru-m-d lionkTH may have been seen Ravens perching, or even 
..!■ U.e Itaptorial group, Fn.rther back fro.n tl.e lake, limit, 
r .'11.1 .m-. will' -vn.l »|K«c« of Clrou«, and tl,e»t were perl, «p. occa. 
^ L.v.h1 uiM,n hv the l«lcon-Iike Eagle and its companion, the lesser form, 
:;ri^.!rXv:'u:aL^^^ .l.e overhead. Doubtlo.. th„»> eagle. 
chiHly mdiiiM*-.! upai the Hares ami other smaller mammalia, as they do m certain 
n*in<*ns ii«»w-«-<layH. , , . ,1 1 .i 
the dnv cIcNsd. ami night came on, its stillness no doubt was broken by the 
Ixsit of a lMio«Mie liubo, in no imiKirtant resjiect differing with his bulionine descend- 
■ins of this iiayclioxoic era. . , r 1 r 
Theft.* npiH*nn*«l to Ik* no large or even medium-sized Keptilia, while the fish ot 
the Uke. although miiiienms, were limiU*d in the matter of species. Many of the 
various gn»iipM ami classes among the Invertebrata were doubtless present in great 
ahiiiiclaiK'e. and wlieii of suitable kind aflorded an iiie.xhaustible supply of IIkmI for 
the wild-ft»wl. 
To s|M>ak again of tlie rliniaU*. it might well be compared with the present 
eliinnte uf Florida ami the lower part of Louisiana, with the vegetation fully as lu.x- 
iirinnt ns it is now in th«*se parts and with the Palms more abundantly represented. 
Taken ns a whole then, of the various vertebrate's in the scene of a Pliocene 
Uke ill the n*gion we have under consideration, we would be most naturally struck 
by the rtinspieiious difli*penee s<H*n in the mammalia. Although the majority of 
them* are <if existing gi-iiera, they now only occur in widely differt*nt parts of the 
world, .\pnrt from one or two striking sptw-ies, it would probably take the i*ye of 
an ornithologist to deti-et any marked departure among the birds. The large Goose, 
the KIntningoes. and the gn*at (’orinorant might be recognized by popular eyes. 
To the general naturalist, no doubt, the birds would offer the nuxst attractive objects 
for Miidy— for hinls had feathers and jK'culiar co/ot'ations of bills and ft*et. and 
thou* chnmeters may have changi*d considerably since the Pliocene ejKich. Such 
m-emdary rharaeteristies of «*.\ternal structuivs are far more liable to change 
thnaigh the intliieiice of eliimite and surixmndings reacting upon habits, than 
" n- ......„„„l p„H ,.f 
lli."m«i!'.rilv i-il 1 '”” ■’"'"'*''1 "1 <lic iKuly uf my memoir, i]i tlic ca* of 
,wiv„ „i, 
woukl Imvo Uot) ititcr.-.(irii. to li „ I'-lits were past all recognition. It 
compare,! the depths of the ilimischiac noleh 
