THE DINOSAURS 99 



it is dangerous to lay down any hard and fast 

 laws concerning animals, and he who writes 

 about them is continually obliged to qualify 

 his remarks — in sporting parlance, to hedge 

 a little, and in the present instance there is 

 some reason, based on the arrangement of 

 vertebrae and ribs, to suppose that the lungs 

 of Dinosaurs were somewhat like those of 

 birds, and that, as a corollary, their blood may 

 have been better aerated and warmer than 

 that of living reptiles. But, to return to the 

 question of food. 



From the peculiar character of the articula- 

 tions of the limb-bones, it is inferred that these 

 animals were largely aquatic in their habits, 

 and fed on some abundant species of water 

 plants. One can readily see the advantage of 

 the long neck in browsing off the vegetation 

 on the bottom of shallow lakes, while the ani- 

 mal was submerged, or in rearing the head 

 aloft to scan the surrounding shores for the 

 approach of an enemy. Or, with the tail as a 

 counterpoise, the entire body could be reared 

 out of water and the head be raised some thirty 

 feet in the air. 



