Pond Life 
joints, like the tail of a lizard, only that - 
each of these joints had a pair of feathers 
attached to it. Hampered as they must 
have been with these long, unwieldy 
tails, their power of flight was most likely 
very feeble in comparison with that of 
modern birds. Some probably fluttered 
from tree to tree, feeding on fruit, while 
others swam in the rivers and fed on 
fish. For the remains have been found 
in America of a large, toothed water-bird, 
which was unable to fly at all, being 
without the ‘keeled’ breast-bone for the 
support of the wing muscles which are 
so necessary for the flying birds. 
From other branches of the reptile 
family have come the mammals, in all 
their different kinds, both the land 
mammals and those which have taken to 
the water so completely that they almost 
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