Eighteenth Annual meeting. 



rocks was obtained nearly all the material for Marsh's magnificent work upon the 

 "Toothed Birds." This is the highest Cretaceous group represented in Kansas, the 

 Benton and the Dakota lying beneath it. The Dakota rests unconformably upon 

 the Permo-Carboniferous rocks, with apparently an entire exclusion of the Triassic 

 and Jurassic formations. The evidence of the existence of bird-life is thus extended 

 down from the highest to the lowest division of the Kansas Cretaceous, and if Pro- 

 fessors Mudge and St. John are correct in maintaining the absence of the Triassic 

 and Jurassic formation in our State, this evidence cannot be extended lower down 

 in Kansas, unless we admit the somewhat improbable suggestion that the class of 

 birds existed in the Paleozoic time. 



The discovery of this Dakota bird-track enables us to supply an important ele- 

 ment hitherto lacking in that earliest of Cretaceous eras. The wonderful luxuriance 

 of the land vegetation of the Dakota and its marvelous similarity to the dicotyledo- 

 nous forest growths of the warm temperate climes of the present day, have rendered 

 these sandstone beds a most fascinating field of investigation for both Paleo-bot- 

 anists and Neo-botanists. The finely developed and perfectly preserved foliage of 

 Oaks, Willows, Poplars, Laurels, Sarsaparillas, Magnolias, Sassafras, and other kin- 

 dred forms belonging to genera now long extinct, have hitherto suggested a beauty 

 of landscape whose perfection was only marred by the apparent scarcity of animal 

 forms. It is true that these fossil leaves give abundant evidence that the vegetable 

 kingdom was subjected in those ancient times to the attacks of injurious insects 

 But our imaginations require the presence of more conspicuous animal forms to 

 harmonize with the extremely luxurious development of vegetable life. Our bird- 

 track supplies the missing element of graceful aerial forms. From the size of the 

 footprint it may be safely inferred that the bird which left it was somewhat larger 

 than a pigeon. It was probably a bird with teeth, in that respect resembling its 

 predecessor the European Archceopteryx of Jurassic times and its successors of the 

 Middle Cretaceous, the Hesperornis and the Ichthyornis of the Niobrara group. If 

 our Dakota bird was an Ichthyornis, as is by no means improbable, its habits were 

 doubtless similar to those of the modern Tern. 



Prof. Marsh writes of the Ichthyornis that "its sharp cutting teeth prove beyond a 

 doubt that it was carnivorous. Its great powers of flight, long jaws, and its recurved 

 teeth, suggest moreover that it captured its prey alive. Its food was probably fishes 

 as their remains are found in great abundance mingled with those of Ichthyornis. 

 Besides Ichthyornis and its allies, the only other denizens of the air at present known 

 to have inhabited the same region were the toothless Pterodactyls. The Ichthyornis 

 doubtless competed with these huge dragons for the fishes in the tropical ocean 

 about which they lived." 



The distribution of land and water in Kansas during the formation of the Dakota 

 sandstones was of such a character as to favor the belief that our bird was either a 

 wading-bird, or allied to Ichthyornis and the modern Terns. The occurrence of the 

 fossil leaves in restricted areas shows that the land was in the form of islands of 

 limited extent, while the naarine character of the fossil shells indicates that these 

 islands were surrounded by a salt-water ocean. 



While a student at the Agassiz School of Natural History on Penikese Island off 

 the coast of Massachusetts, the writer took great pleasure in watching the large flocks 

 of Terns which had established their breeding-grounds upon a portion of the island. 

 These beautiful birds, with long and narrow wings, were continually performing 

 their graceful evolutions in the air in search of food in the ocean for themselves 

 and their young. It was a rare occurrence to see these birds alight upon the shores 

 of the island. They consequently left few tracks upon the sand. From " early dawn 



