278 



FOSSIL BIRDS 



animal, its footprint measuring nearly 17 inches in length and its 

 stride some 8 feet. 



An enormous space of time separates these reputed Ornithich- 

 nites, as they are called, from the first undoubted fossil Bird. This 

 was disco vered in 1861 by Andreas Wagner in the lithographic 

 slate of Solenhofen in Bavaria, belonging to the Jurassic system, and 

 is commonly known by the name of Arch^oj^fer'/.r,^ though that of 

 Gryphosaiirus was given by him to the original specimen now in the 



Slab with remains of Arch^opteeyx, from the original in the British Museum. Reduced. 



British Museum, Avhich remained unique until 1877, when a second, 

 now in the Museum of Berlin,'-^ was found in the same locality.^ Since 



^ Hermann von Meyer had previously described a fossil feather from the 

 same formation, to the owner of which he gave this name. Its specific, generic, 

 not to say ordinal, identity with the creature Avhose remains were subsequently 

 found is of course problematical, but the received laws of nomenclature fully 

 justify the common usage. 



- W. Dames, Uehcr Archmojttcryx {Pal. Abhandl. Band. ii. Heft 3), Berlin : 

 1884 ; and Gcol. Mag. 1884, p. 410. 



* Future investigations may shew that the two specimens belong to distinct 

 species if not genera (cf. Seeley, Geol. Mag. 1881, p. 454). 



