THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 31 



XJalaeontological history of birds. It is variously classed, with the cranes 

 bj^ some, with the herons by others, and in a class of its own by still 

 others. Though of such a doubtful position the Phororhacos, a giant 

 from the Miocene of Patagonia, much as it resembles an aberrant 

 eagle in certain outward resjDects, is not such. The monstrous head, 

 larger than that of a horse, and its curved eagle-like beak suggest 

 a cruel carnivorous nature whether it fed on fish or flesh. But it has 

 been proposed in extenuation that the ferocious beak was designed for 

 digging roots, being aided by its powerful feet, or that its owner was 

 a carrion-eater. At the best it was a formidable bird standing seven 

 to eight feet high. No one can view^ its skull, casts of which are to 

 be seen in museums, without astonishment. Large though its leg 

 bones are they are wholly disproportionate to a skull of such unus- 

 ual size. These Patagonian giants were made known to science by 

 Ameghino in the year 1895, and have been subsequently described 

 by Andrews in the Ibis for January, 1896, pp. 1-12, and Lucas describes 

 and figures them in the Animals of the Past. 



GASTOBNIS 



Of the Gastornithes, the best known is Gastornis, a bird as large as 

 the ostrich, found in the lower Eocene of Europe, and compared with 

 the geese. The sktill was fifteen inches long with the margin of the 

 jaws serrated somewhat as in Odontopteryx (Fig. 91). 



TOOTirED CABINATAE 



Leaving the flightless birds for that division empowered with flight 

 we find the Carinatae, like the Eatitae, divided into a toothed and 

 toothless representative of the order. 



The Carinatae, now the mogt numerous group of birds, are charac- 

 terized by many osteological peculiarities. For the average ornithol- 

 ogist it is sufficient to say that their fundamental characteristics are 

 the broad sternum with its strong keel, and their power of flight. The 

 amateur ornithologist must be reminded that this gift of flight is not 

 universal among the Carinatae, for Avhile the majority have wings 

 adapted for flight, others from their mode of life have wings more or 

 less atrophied, while in still others, such as the penguins, they are modi- 

 fied into iiaddles for swimming. The oldest known carinate bird is 

 Laopteryx, from the upper Jurassic of this country; but since palaeon- 

 tologists themselves confess their doubts as to this being a true bird 

 and think it a bird-like reptile instead, and inasmuch as several other 

 described birds prove to be ornithosaurs (pterodactyls), Ichthyornis 

 and Apatornis, the toothed birds from the chalk beds of the Kansas 

 Cretaceous enjoy the distinction of seniority among the carinates. 



ICHTHYOBNis was Small, perhaps the size of an ordinary gull, but 

 was nevertheless rendered conspicuous by an array of conical teeth, 

 of Avhich there are twenty in the maxillae, as many in the mandible. 



