BIRDS OF THE ROCKS. 177 
upon my shoes, and hear the runic notes that 
have ripened into the song of the mocking- 
bird and the brown-thrush. 
Below the surface of Professor Huxley’s 
comparisons of the Birds and the Reptiles 
there is a strong current of most fascinating 
poetry flowing back over the fossil-bearing 
rocks. JI take it that the first men were much 
nearer to Nature than we are. It may be that 
an hereditary far-fetched memory (so to speak) 
of winged monsters, suggested the dragons 
and griffins of early song. The crude but per- 
fectly natural imaginings of the savages of to- 
day, as well as the refined fantasies of the an- 
cients, seem to smack of this lingering hered- 
itament transmitted through a _ thousand 
changes from the lower estate. Pan, the goat- 
footed musician, is scarcely less monstrous, 
when we view him soberly, than many of the 
beings shut up in the stones. 
Mr. Seeley has described a most interesting 
bird of the eocene period, named Odontopteryx 
toliapicus, probably a fish-eater, having nearly 
the habits of a cormorant, whose mouth was 
rimmed with bony teeth set in the powerful 
jaws. An expression of savage fierceness and 
voracity has clung to this bird’s head-bones 
through countless ages of change. Not even 
the relentless grip of the rocks for a million 
of years could entirely quench the demoniac 
spirit of the creature. In what sea or lake or 
stream did it strike its prey? On what windy 
ocean crag did it rear its clamorous brood ? 
I should like to have a look at its nest, if only 
to compare it with those of the fish-eaters of 
to-day, but much better should I enjoy a sail on 
the waters it haunted, with the wind on my 
