Animals Before Man 



greater part of the time in tlie water, alter- 

 nately feeding on succulent water plants and 

 basking luxuriously in tlie sun. It would have 

 been an interestino: sis^ht to have watched 

 Diplodocus in its native streams, its ponderous 

 form reared amid the water like the hut of a 

 lake dweller. Now the head would be plunged 

 beneath the surface in search of food, now 

 raised to the height of a small house to scan 

 the shore for the approach of Allosaurus or one 

 of his kin. And it is to be noted that the 

 enormous bulk of one of these reptiles would 

 enable him to stay in water so deep that the 

 smaller carnivorous forms could reach him only 

 by swimming, and thus would put the attack- 

 ing pai-ty at a disadvantage. Or perhaps these 

 huge animals slept during the day with the 

 body submerged, and yet with the head resting 

 comfortably on shore. There is a suggestion of 

 nocturnal habits in the great eye-sockets, while 

 the eyes were placed well back and at the sides, 

 something after the fashion of a woodcock's 

 eyes, though not in the extreme of the fashion. 

 In one thing these animals were notably de- 



162 



