Early Birds and Mammals 



Tlie majority of our Cretaceous birds have 

 been found in Kansas, where they lived and 

 died about the borders of the great inland sea. 

 One or two came from Texas and the remainder 

 from New Jersey, but whether these last were 

 toothed or toothless we do not know, for few 

 bones even have been found and no skulls. 

 Besides these there is an ^gg^ or rather the cast 

 of an ^g^^^ from the Cretaceous of New Mexico, 

 apparently that of some water-fowl. All these 

 species were either swimming or wading birds, 

 and their fossil remains all occur in rocks that 

 were formed in the sea. 



It can easily be seen that our knowledge 

 of early birds is very limited, nor is it much 

 greater concerning those of a later period, for 

 deposits that have yielded abundant bones of 

 mammals have been utterly barren of birds. 



If North America can not as yet claim any 

 examples of the most ancient birds, it at least 

 stands foremost with mammals, for while these 

 date back to the Trias both here and in Eu- 

 rope, the first of them to be discovered was in 

 Chatham County, N. C. These Triassic mam- 

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