74 



THE OS PREY. 



Othniel Charles Marsh. 



OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH AS AN ORNITHOLOGIST. 



By Chaki.es E. Beechkk, New Haven. 



Few persons at first thoiig'ht would associate 

 the name of Professor Marsh with the science 

 of Ornitholofj3% yet some of his most brilliant 

 work was clone in this field of research, and in 

 some reg^ards he may be ranked as the Catesby 

 of American Paleontolog-y. His first great dis- 

 covery, and in many respects his most notable 

 one, was the fact that primitive birds possessed 

 well-defined teeth. No other discovery is so 

 wholly his, and none of his later finds, however 

 marvellous, could have at once demanded and 

 received the attention awarded to this. 



Marsh took up the stud^' of American fossil 

 birds almost at the beginning of his career as a 

 vertebrate paleontologist. His earliest paper in 

 this line of research was published in 1870. In 

 it were described five species from the Cretace- 



ous of New Jersey, and four Tertiary birds from 

 Maryland, North Carolina, Nebraska and Idaho. 

 This communication was followed by other pa- 

 pers at frequent intevals down to 1877, the series 

 culminating in the publication of his famous 

 monograph on the Odontornithes, or Toothed 

 birds, in 1880. Subsequent to this date, re- 

 searches in this line were less important and 

 more infrequent, owing chiefly to the apparent 

 exhaustion of the field, but partly to the over- 

 whelming amount of material he had secured, 

 representing- the fossil reptiles and mammals of 

 the Rocky Mountain region. 



The steps leading to the announcement of 

 birds with teeth are interesting. Hesperoniis 

 regalis was described in May, 1872, and Ichthyor- 

 nis dispar in September of the same year, but 



