288 ANNUAL T^ECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



The young, when hatched, are in the most helpless state that 

 it is possible to conceive. Their legs and wings are of the 

 most rudimentary character. Their eyes are closed, and for 

 eight or ten days they are fed with a curdy secretion of the 

 parent bird, which involves the necessity of the pairing of the 

 old birds, and setting on the nest by turns. The young in- 

 serts its beak into the mouth of the old one, and takes out 

 either the secretion referred to, or grain or other food, pre- 

 viously swallowed by the parent and disgorged by it. The 

 young pigeon grows with marvelous rapidity. In a month 

 it leaves the nest, with a complete set of nestling feathers, 

 and is capable of flight, which, within another fortnight, can 

 be well sustained, and the bird shortly flies in pursuit of its 

 own food. These nestling feathers are gradually changed, 

 and, if the bird is early hatched, the adult plumage is com- 

 pleted in autumn, the bird having changed its dress only 

 once. 



The gallinacea, on the other hand, always lay five or six 

 eggs (for instance, the peacock), to eighteen or twenty, in 

 some of the smaller kinds. These eggs are usually highly 

 colored, instead of being white, as are those of the pigeon. 

 The young bird is able to run about and feed itself as soon 

 as hatched. The moult is entirely different from that of the 

 pigeon. The quill feathers of the wings are the first to ap- 

 pear, becoming visible in two or three days after birth. Before 

 a fortnight they begin to shed, and the second step is fol- 

 lowed by a third, and this by the permanent, adult plumage 

 of the autumn. The tail feathers change in a similar manner. 

 Usually, in the pigeons, the sexes are nearly or quite identi- 

 cal in color as well as in size, while in the gallinacea they 

 always differ. There is also an essential difference in the 

 structure of the skull, easily appreciable in any specimen. 

 19 A, September 7,1812,24:8. 



A NEW FOSSIL BIRD. 



Some months ago Professor Marsh communicated to the 

 public the discovery, in the upper cretaceous shales of Kan- 

 sas, of a new form of fossil bird, to which he gave the name 

 of Ichthyornis, describing several species, the type being I. 

 dispar. Its most striking characteristic consisted in the pos- 

 session of biconcave vertebrae. In close connection with the 



