5 io EVOLUTION OF BIRDS xvm. i- 



1. Classification (cont.) 



Order 10. Charadriiformes. Waders and Gulls 



Numenius, curlew; Capella, snipe; Calidris, sandpiper; Vanellus, 

 lapwing; Scolopax, woodcock; Larus, gull; Uria, guillemot; 

 Plautus, little auk 

 Order n. Columbiformes. Pigeons 

 Columba, pigeon; *Raphus, dodo 

 Order 12. Cuculiformes. Cuckoos 



Cuculus, cuckoo 

 Order 13. Psittaciformes. Parrots 

 Order 14. Strigiformes. Owls 



Athene, little owl; Tyto, farm owl; Strix, tawny owl 

 Order 15. Caprimulgiformes. Nightjars 



Caprimulgus, nightjar 

 Order 16. Micropodiformes. Swifts and humming-birds 



Apus, swift, Trochilus, humming-bird 

 Order 17. Coraciiformes. Bee-eaters and kingfishers 



Merops, bee-eater; Alcedo, kingfisher 

 Order 18. Piciformes. Woodpeckers 



Picus, woodpecker 

 Order 19. Passeriformes. Perching birds 



Corvus, rook; Sturnns, starling; Fringilla, finch; Passer, house- 

 sparrow; Alauda, lark; Anthus, pipit; Motacilla, wagtail; 

 Certhia, tree-creeper; Parus, tit; Lanius, shrike; Sylvia, 

 warbler; Turdus, thrush; Erithacus, British robin; Luscinia, 

 nightingale; Prunella, hedge-sparrow; Troglodytes, wren; 

 Hirundo, swallow 



2. Origin of the birds 



Many characteristics of birds show close resemblance to those of 

 reptiles and in particular to the archosaurian diapsids. Already in the 

 early Triassic period the small pseudosuchians such as *Enparkeria 

 (p. 417) showed the essential characteristics of the bird group, especi- 

 ally those associated with a bipedal habit. From some such form 

 the birds have almost certainly been derived, by a series of changes 

 parallel in many cases to those found in other descendants of the 

 pseudosuchians, such as the crocodiles, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs. 



3. Jurassic birds and the origin of flight 



We have no detailed evidence of the stages by which cold-blooded 

 terrestrial reptiles were transformed into warm-blooded flying birds, 



