BULLETIN No. 49 
THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE FOSSIL BIRD 
CYPHORNIS MAGNUS 
By Alexander Wetmore 
Illustration 
Figure 1. Upper end of metatarsus of Cyphornis magnus Cope 
Page 
2 
The avian fossil Cyphornis magnus was described by Cope 1 in 1894 
from a fragmentary metatarsus from Vancouver island. Its systematic 
position has been somewhat uncertain. In the original description Cope 
compared this species mainly with the totipalmate birds, particularly 
with the genus Pelecanus , but adduced relationships to other groups. 
His final statement reads 2 “we may suspect real affinities with the 
Steganopodes, combined with affinities to more primitive birds with a 
simple hypotarsal structure.” His comparisons with modem pelicans have 
led to the inclusion of Cyphornis magnus in the family Pelecanidae in 
the fossil list of the third edition of the A. 0. U. Check-list 3 . The species 
is also discussed as a pelican by L. H. Miller in a review of the fossil birds 
of the Pacific coast. 4 
The type of Cyphornis is in the collection of the National Museum 
of Canada. During the A. O. U. convention in Ottawa, in October, 1926, 
through the kindness of Mr. W. H. Collins, Acting Director of the 
Museum, and Mr. E. M. Kindle, Chief of the Division of Palaeontology, 
I was able to examine this type and was given permission to bring it 
to the U. S. National Museum in Washington for careful study and 
comparison with material in the large collection of skeletons of birds there 
available. The results of these studies have been of considerable interest. 
From the records of the Canadian Geological Survey it appears that 
the type of Cyphornis magnus , Cat. No. 6323, was collected at Carmanah 
point, Vancouver island, in the strait of Juan de Fuca. The formation 
is marked as “Tertiary (Eoeene-Oligocene).” On the margin of the 
volume containing Cope's original description in the library of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Canada there is the following annotation in pencil: 
“This bone from Carmanah point, Vancouver I. sent by Capt. Jacques 
of Victoria. G.W.D.” The letters following the statement are indistinct, 
but Mr. Kindle believes them to be G. W. D., the initials of Dr. Dawson. 
The geological horizon from which this fossil originates is, unfort- 
unately, uncertain. J. C. Merriam 6 , on basis of material collected by 
Dr. C. F. Newcombe of Victoria, has placed a fauna exposed at Carmanah 
point in the Miocene, from its close similarity to the Astoria Miocene as 
studied by Conrad, 
1 Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci,, Philadelphia, ser, 2, vol. 9, pp. 449 452 {May 31, 1894). 
5 Loc. cit„ p, 451. 
* Check-list of North American Birds, 3rd ed., 1910, p. 381. 
