Some Birds of Prey from the Upper Pliocene of Kansas
Some birds of prey from the Upper Pliocene of Kansas.---Although many arian fossils from the local faunas of the Rexroad formation (Upper Pliocene), Meade County, Kansas, have now been reported, several species of birds of prey remain. These fossils, which Dr. C. W. Hibbard of The University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology a.nd his field parties collected, come from the Rexroad and Fox Canyon local faunas of the Rexroad formation. These two localities arc described by Hibbard (1950). The two local faunas have been treated as one in the past, but Hibbard's (1967) latest view is that they arc distinct. The Fox Canyon local fauna is now considered to be older than the Rexroad and is distinct on the basis of its small mammals (Hibbard, 1967). Birds have bccn reported previously from these local faunas by Wetmore (1944), Tordoff (1951, 1959), Brodkorb (1964, 1967), Collins (1964), Ford (1966), Murray (1967), a.nd Fcduccia (1967, 1968). The birds of prey represented arc as follows: Accipiter sp.---Two distal ends of tibiotarsi represent an accipitcr approximately the size of the Recent A. cooperi, but the clements arc not sufficiently diagnostic to warrant the naming of a new species or the definite assignment of the fossils to the Recent form. One bone, a 42-mm piece of the distal end of a left tibiotarsus (UMMP No. V57506, from the Rexroad local fau.na, loc. no. 3) measures 10.8 mm in width through condyles. The same measurement for eight specimens of Recent A. cooperi females gives a mcan of 10.1 mm, with a range of 9.2-10.9 mm. The smaller fossil, a 17.1-mm piece of the distal end of a left tibiotarsus (UMMP No. V45422, from the Rexroad local fauna, loc. UM-K3-53) measures 9.0 mm in width through condyles. The same measurement for five males of Recent A. cooperi gives a mean of 8.5 mm, with a range of 8.3-8.8 mm. Whether or not both fossils represent females or one a female and the other a male cannot bc dctcrmi.ned, but it is probably best to assume that only one species is represented. Buteo sp.--A fragment of a right coracold (UMMP No. V24767, from the Fox Canyon local fauna, loc. UM-K1-47) represents a large species of Buteo close in size and morphology to B. jamaicensis, but it is too fragmentary to permit allocation. No useful measurements could be taken.
A New Swallow from the Fox Canyon Local Fauna (Upper Pliocene) of Kansas
A New Swallow from the Fox Canyon Local Fauna (Upper Pliocene) of Kansas.Many avian fossils from the Rexroad and Fox Canyon local faunas of the Rexroad Formation, Meade County, Kansas, remain unreported. One of these, the humerus of a previously undescribed swallow from the Fox Canyon Locality, is reported in this paper. Fossils from this locality have been included previously within the Rexroad local fauna, but Hibbard (Pap. Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, Vol. 52: in press) now considers them to represent an older local fauna, which is distinct on the basis of the small mammals. The fossil was compared with 20 extant species representing the following genera: Iridoprocne, Tachycineta, Progne, Noliochelidon, Atticora, Alopochelidon, Riparia, Stelgidopteryx, Hirundo, Cecropis, and Petrochelidon. It was also compared with the Pleistocene swallow, Tachycineta speleodytes. The Fox Canyon fossil is compared below with Hirundo rustica, the species it most closely resembles. Hirundo aprica, new species
A New Rail from the Pleistocene of Florida
A MONG recently collected bird material from Pleistocene deposits in ^ Florida are three humeri of a tiny rail of the genus Laterallus. The modern species of this genus are rare in collections, and this has been a handicap in determining the affinities of the fossil form. Fortunately this genus does not exhibit the marked sexual dimorphism in size shown by some other rails. Skeletal material of recent species of Laterallus was examined through the kindness of the curators of the Chicago Natural History Museum, United States National Museum, and the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The drawings (Fig. 1) were made by Miss Esther Coogle.