BIRDS OF THE ROCKS. 177 



upon my shoes, and hear the runic notes that 

 have ripened into the song of the mocking 

 bird and the brown-thrush. 



Below the surface of Professor Huxley s 

 comparisons of the Birds and the Reptiles 

 there is a strong current of most fascinating 

 poetry flowing back over the fossil-bearing 

 rocks. I take it that the first men were much 

 nearer to Nature than we are. It may be that 

 an hereditary far-fetched memory (so to speak) 

 of winged monsters, suggested the dragons 

 and griffins of early song. The crude but per 

 fectly natural imaginings of the savages of to 

 day, as well as the refined fantasies of the an 

 cients, seem to smack of this lingering hered 

 itament transmitted through a thousand 

 changes from the lower estate. Pan, the goat- 

 footed musician, is scarcely less monstrous, 

 when we view him soberly, than many of the 

 beings shut up in the stones. 



Mr. Seeley has described a most interesting 

 bird of the eocene period, named Odontopteryx 

 toliapicus, probably a fish-eater, having &quot;nearly 

 the habits of a cormorant, whose mouth was 

 rimmed with bony teeth set in the powerful 

 jaws. An expression of savage fierceness and 

 voracity has clung to this bird s head-bones 

 through countless ages of change. Not even 

 the relentless grip of the rocks for a million 

 of years could entirely quench the demoniac 

 spirit of the creature. In what sea or lake or 

 stream did it strike its prey ? On what windy 

 ocean crag did it rear its clamorous brood ? 

 I should like to have a look at its nest, if only 

 to compare it with those of the fish-eaters of 

 to-day, but much better should I enjoy a sail on 

 the waters it haunted, with the wind on my 



