BIRDS WITH TEETH. 



387 



omis means " fish-bird." The fossil remains from which Hesper- 

 ornis and Ichthyomis have been described are exhibited in the 

 Museum of Yale College, in New Haven. 



A long time, a whole geological period, before Hesperornis and 

 Ichthyomis were enjoying life and eating fish on the vast Creta- 

 ceous ocean of the western United States, there 

 was on the other side of the Atlantic, at about 

 the site of the town of Solenhofen, in Bavaria, 

 a lake or marine gulf in a protected situation, 

 with very quiet waters. The lime carried by 

 the rivers into this gulf was deposited at the 

 bottom, in an exceedingly uniform and undis- 

 turbed manner, as a very fine sediment. At 

 present, after millions of years, the gulf is dried up and the sedi- 

 ment has been hardened to a limestone, the grain of which is un- 

 usually small and regular. In fact, no limestone in any country 



Fig. 5. Cervical Verte- 

 bra OF ICHTHYORNIS 

 DISPAR, X 2. 



^'V VlCCK s.F.CAL 



Fig. 6. Arch^optertx macroura (Berlin specimen) 



