My dear Stewart:



When I received my mail I was remindid in two ro theree ways of a duty which I have not yer performed.  I received a paper on fossil bireds from the United States National Museum written by Alexander Wetmore of the Biological Survey.  It illustrated the rarity of remains of birds and emphasized in my mind the value of the fossil bone which we collected last summer.



Int he paper referred to a varitey fo species and genera are represented, but each one by only a fragement of bone.  In our collection the bones are compoelte as a rule, and if I remember correctly, we saw 75 or more of them and there are doubtless more than that we did not see.  There are evidently bones of more than one individual and of differenct sizes.  They are scattered but it was my impression that one or more birds could be restored by an expert, with comparatively guess work.  



The birds of Arizona, which the above mentioned paper described are of Pliocene age, and thus very much liek the birds of the present day.  The bones which are collected are of early Eocene age called Lower Green River put probably fo about the same age as the Wind River of Wyoming.  Fossil birds, complete enough for restoration, are rare indeed and are the single wonder of millions of years.  We have Archeopteryx of the Jurassic, Marsh restored two from the Cretacious, and there is the huge Diatryma of the Eocene of Wyoming.



It would be fine if we could get someone to describe these birds.  When I was in Pittsburgh I believe that Dr. Sufeldt was glad to do such work and I believe he is quthority on the osteology of birds.  Dr. Shufeldt is an old man but I was talking, last summer I think it was, with a friend of his and he was still active and interested in birds.



This is not the only important find int he Green River fromation, or in my mind the most important, we found turtles, corcodiles, mammals, and hosts of insects and plants.  When the rocks and the   of the Green River are thoroughtly studied we will perhaps know more of the life and conditions of the time than we do of any other age to the present.