PAPERS 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS— THE PROGENITORS OF BIRDS 



ERWIN HINCKLEY BABBOUR, LINCOLN 



It is difficult to cast into type a subject presented to this society 

 extemporaneously and at length, and profusely illustrated by the pro- 

 jecting lantern. Still, it is possible to state the main facts in an 

 abstract, and to reproduce the more important illustrations by zinc 

 etchings. 



The exact ancestry of birds, though not traced step by step, is 

 fairly well determined now, and as palaeontological research advances 

 is sure to be known in detail. It must be remembered that this lineage 

 may be traced far back by the embryologist, who catches glimpses of 

 earlier forms through the study of embryos, though the main work 

 must be done by the palaeontologist, involving long-continued and ex- 

 haustive research. 



The palaeontologist Avould have little to say about the time and the 

 labor if the material were at hand. That is to say, bird remains are 

 rare in the rocks. This fact is variously accounted for, but seems to 

 be attributable largely to the power of flight. This means of rapid 

 locomotion throug'h the air has enabled birds to pass over barriers 

 sufficient to check other Jinimals, and to thiis distribute themselves 

 over the world. They are enabled to travel quickly from one point 

 to another and it is probable that the bulk of dead birds fall upon 

 or near to the land. If iipon land they suffer complete decay. The 

 hardest of their bones would last but a short time thus exposed, for 

 under the changes wrought by sun, wind, rain, and all the atmospheric 

 agents the.y would pass away into the air as gas and water, and a 

 certain amount would return to the soil as an earthy residue. If n-pon 

 the water, they meet with destructive worms, mollusks, fishes, and 

 other animals and few escape. Still if dropped in water or in a boggy 

 place and left in an undistiirbed bed, the chances of preservation are 

 good, inasmuch as bones under such favoring conditions undergo only 

 partial decomposition, being- excluded from contact with the free air. 

 It is apparent then that but few fall in the favored spots. Still, as 

 one considers the ages which have elapsed since the Jurassic, or even 

 before, when ornithic flight began, it seems almost incredible that so 

 few birds are to be found in the fossil state. At flrst impulse one 

 might feel disposed to trace the avian lineage through the strange 

 flying dragons known as pterodactyls. However, critical study makes 

 this line of descent doubtful and tends to establish a close kinship to 

 the dinosaurs, however unlike them birds may seem to be. To the 

 layman the word "dinosaur" implies something necessarily huge, but 



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