III.—New Extinct Bird from South Carolina

Abstract

Early in January, 1916, Dr. O. P. Hay, of Washington, D.C., referred to me for description the fossil bone of a large bird that had been discovered in the eastern part of South Carolina some time previously. This specimen I at once recognized as the lower extremity of the right femur of some bird belonging to a species much larger than any existing form in the United States. I find this specimen to be thoroughly fossilized and of a dull-black colour, the edges of both condyles being considerably chipped off. On the antero-internal aspect the shaft appears to be cut away as if by some shaving implement. This, and where the shaft is broken nearly squarely across above, exposes a filling of a dense, very hard, pale-grey matrix, with a grain as fine as clay. Judging from this there should be no doubt but that this femur was a thoroughly pneumatic one in the living bird, and that the thickness of the osseous wall of the shaft was by no means great, as may be appreciated by examining the figures on the accompanying Plate XV.