11 



the distinguished palaeontologist Hermann von Meyer, and the 

 bird thus brought to light he named Archaopteryx lithographica. 

 In 1863 Professor Richard Owen described a specimen from the 

 same deposits, consisting of the pelvis, hind-limbs, tail, some de- 

 tached bones of the fore-limb, and part of the wing-feathers. (See 

 Fig. I.) In 1877 another specimen was found, much nearer com- 



Fig. I. The first discovered specimen of the Archaiopteryx. 



plete, the parts lacking in the first specimen being in this especially 

 well preserved. (See Fig. 2.) The Archaeopteryx is the oldest 

 bird known, and supplies one of the missing links between birds 

 and reptiles, although decidedly a bird rather than a reptile. It 

 was about the size of a Crow, was provided with teeth, and had a 

 very long tail — nearly as long as the body — consisting of about 

 twenty long, slender vertebrae, with feathers growing from the 



