78 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



a kite ; and because of this long, lizard-like tail 

 this bird and his immediate kith and kin are 

 placed in a group dubbed Saururse, or lizard 

 tailed. 



Because impressions of feathers are not found 

 all around these specimens some have thought 

 that they were confined to certain portions of 

 the body — the wings, tail, and thighs - — the 

 other parts being naked. There seems, how- 

 ever, no good reason to suppose that such was 

 the case, for it is extremely improbable that 

 such perfect and important feathers as those of 

 the wings and tail should alone have been de- 

 veloped, while there are many reasons why the 

 feathers of the body might have been lost be- 

 fore the bird was covered by mud, or why their 

 impressions do not show. 



It was a considerable time after the finding 

 of the first specimen that the presence of teeth 

 in the jaws was discovered, partly because the 

 British Museum specimen was imperfect,* and 

 partly because no one suspected that birds had 

 ever possessed teeth, and so no one ever looked 



* The skull was lacking, and a part of the upper jarv lying 

 to one side was thought to belong to ajish. 



