14 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XII 
carnivores by a large number of individuals with worn or broken teeth. He 
ascribed this condition to the inexperience of the young or to the extremity of the 
aged. Possibly among predaceous birds, cared for in infancy and taught by instnct 
to seek an active prey not perceived by the sense of smell, it was mainly the old or 
otherwise disabled individuals which resorted to this ignoble feast.” 
The absence of small passerines is perhaps explainable by their possible 
destruction during a certain degree of differential motion of which these Jieds give 
evidence. The struggle of the larger mammals entrapt, the slow sinking of their 
carcases, the upward counter-current produced by the rise of gas bubbles or of 
semi-liquid material, all conspired to effect a pretty thoro churning which resulted 
in the breaking of mammalian bones of considerable size. Recent passerines are 
certainly not infrequent victims of the deceptive asphalt. Their bones in matted 
masses were found in a recent deposit. Their bodies still in the flesh have been 
noted as stated above. A workman in the oil fields told me that he once counted 
the dead bodies of seventy-five swallows that had come to gather “mud” on the 
margin of an oil reservoir built by the levee of a natural depression. On the 
streets of Berkeley, California, during the past summer, the street railway com- 
pany spread a thin layer of crude oil late one afternoon. The next morning at 
eight o’clock, the author saw an English Sparrow that had fallen victim — feet, 
wings, breast, feathers and finally nostrils, completely smeared with the viscid oil. 
Interesting records bearing on the range of present species have been made in 
several cases. The discovery of a true Peacock is perhaps the most startling. Mr. 
Grinnell in a very charitable review of the author’s paper on this form, has already 
called attention of Condor readers to the instance. Another case is that of Cathar- 
istci occidentalism a new vulture slightly larger than C. at rat a, with different pro- 
portions in the limb segments. The interesting question of the southward and 
eastward range of the new form next presents itself, truly an almost hopeless 
task, it seems, in view of the rarity of avian fossils. Other cases of equal or 
greater interest will doubtless come to light as the work progresses. 
The distal end of a tibia in the collection shows that a Caracara ( Polyboras) 
was a member of our fauna at that time, tho specific determination has not yet 
been accomplisht. A Stork larger than the Wood Ibis ( Tantalus) further allied us 
with the present Mexican or tropical American fauna. What could be more logical 
in view of the relation of Quaternary mammals to the present South American 
fauna ? During Quaternary time the physiographical barriers between North and 
South America are considered to have been less complete than those at present 
existing. Thus a blending of mammalian faunas of the Quaternary was permitted. 
Will enough other semi-tropic avian species be found with Catharista and Polyborus 
to indicate the absence at that time of climatic barriers or climatic differences ? Has 
a gradual change in the climate of southern California caused a recession south- 
ward of the ranges of the two genera Polyborus and Catharista ? 
The search for the unusual has been rewarded to the full in the new form 
Teratornis. This form is striking to the layman as well as to the ornithologist. 
Eagle-like in its contours, unquestionably a bird of raptorial habit at least, yet it 
has a brain case exceeding in width that of the Ostrich, and is armed with a comprest, 
hookt beak almost twice the depth of that of a large female of the Alaska Bald 
Eagle. If the association of body parts found with the skull be correct, and every 
evidence points to the propriety of such assumption, the bird was a flying bird, tho 
a sailing and not a flapping flier. The clavicles are less powerful in proportion 
than those of the Condor, but are far from being the weak structures seen in flight- 
