Grus Canadensis from the Pleistocene of Illinois
Grus canadensis from the Pleistocene of Illinois.-While visiting some commercial gravel pits near Ashmore, Coles County, Illinois, the writer was fortunate in finding the distal end of a radius of the Little Brown Crane (Grus canadensis canadensis) , the second known occurrence of this species in the Pleistocene deposits of the central states. This fragment was lying near the top of a stratum of alluvial gravel and was overlaid by black earth. These two members, representing a more or less continuous deposit of post-Shelbyville age, are the last of a series of gravels and clays deposited in a valley floor by a shallow meandering stream in its later stages.
Recent fauna1 forms have been recovered from the black earth, and both Recent and extinct forms, including the only avian representative, the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), have been obtained from the alluvial deposits (Galbreath, Geol. Ser., Field Mus. Nat. Hist., 6, 1938:303-313). The presence of the Little Brown Crane in this fauna1 group is in no way contradictory to the environmental picture indicated by the associated flora, invertebrates, and vertebrates.
I am indebted to Dr. Alexander Wetmore for verification of the identification of the specimen, which has been presented to the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois &-EDWIN C. GALBREATH, Springfield, Illinois, December 9, 1943.
