THE MUSK I'M 



367 



Bob- White, under Oval Convex Glass. 



of deep wounds cicatrized by a deform- 

 ed callosity. These birds, says Mr. 

 Ameghino, were true -ferocious beasts 

 that engaged in frequent battles. It 

 may be admitted, too, that these 

 powerful bipeds did not fear to meas- 

 ure their strength with reptiles of large 

 size. 



Thepaleontological researches male 

 by Messrs. Ameghino and Mureno 

 teach us that, at the end of the creta- 

 ceous epoch, the reptiles, and especial- 

 ly the dinosaurians, were abundant 

 and varied in the south of Patagonia. 

 Mr. R. Lydekker has described their 

 remains under the names of titanos- 

 aurus and argyrosaurus. It is even 

 probable that this point of the globe 

 is the last in which these gigantic rep- 



tile'^, so flourishing in the Jurassic 

 epoch, lud representatives before be- 

 coming extinct forever. Like the bal- 

 ceniceps of the present epoch, which 

 destroy many young crocodiles upon 

 the banks of the White Nile, and like 

 the Herpentary of southern Africa, 

 which makes bloody war upon snakes, 

 and whicJi is the only running rapa- 

 cious bird known, the phororhacoses 

 must have given chase to reptiles, 

 which tlieir 1 )rig legs allowed them to 

 pursue Ml to the; swamps. Seizing such 

 reptiles with their strong claws, they 

 must have killed them with strokes of 

 their bill in order to devour them 

 afterwards at their leisure, when an- 

 other bird of their own species did not 

 come to dispute such prey with them. 



