CHAPTER] i 
ARCHAEORNITHES——NEORNITHES RATITAE 
ODONTOLCAE., 
NEORNITHES 
THe Class AVES is divided by Dr. Gadow (Bronn’s AZlassen 
und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, Aves, Systemat. Theil, p. 299) 
into two Sub-classes of like value, ARCHAHKORNITHES and 
NEORNITHES, though some writers prefer to consider the 
former as of equal rank only to the several subdivisions of the 
latter here adopted, namely, Ratitae, Odontolcae, and Carinatae 
(p. 25). The question is clearly one of degree, and depends 
entirely on the amount of weight assi 
of distinction to be mentioned below. 
The Sub-class ARCHABORNITHES is at present represented 
by but one member, the first undoubted fossil Bird, made known 
in 1861 by Andreas Wagner from the Jurassic slate formation of 
Solenhofen in Bavaria, and now preserved in the British Museum. 
This he described under the name of Griphosaurus ; but as 
Hermann von Meyer had already bestowed the title of <Archae- 
opteryx lithographica upon a bird, presumably identical, a feather 
of which had been obtained from the above system, the latter 
ned to the various points 
O 
fo) 
appellation has a prior claim. In 1877 a second example, now 
at Berlin, was procured from the same beds,! since which date 
Meyer's specific name has become firmly established, in place of 
that of macrura given by Owen to Wagner's specimen. 
This very remarkable animal, about the size of a Rook, is 
without doubt a connecting link between Reptiles and Birds ; 
but zoologists are practically unanimous in regarding it as an 
Avine form, with Reptilian aftinities and probably arboreal habits. 
The sternum was possibly furnished with a weak keel, the 
strong wide furcula was U-shaped, the ribs had no uncinate 
processes, while in all probability the coracoid and scapula made 
1 Cf. W. Dames, Pal. Abhandl. ii. 1884, pp. 119-196; transl. Geol. Mag. 1884, pp. 
418-424; Vogt, Ibis, 1880, pp. 434-456 ; Hurst, Nat. Scz. vi. 1895, pp. 112-122, 180-186, 
244-248 ; Pycraft, op. cit. v. 1894, pp. 350-360, 437-448 ; viii. 1896, pp. 261-266. 
