CHAP. xxn. FEATHERED ARCH^EOPTERYX OF THE OOLITE. 453 



feathers. But since Professor Owen's paper was read, Mr. 

 John Evans, whom I have often had occasion to mention in 

 the earlier chapters of this work, seems to have found what 

 may indicate a part of the missing cranium. He has called 

 our attention to a smooth protuberance on the otherwise even 

 surface of the slab of limestone which seems to be the cast of 

 the brain or interior of the skull. Some part even of the 

 cranial bone itself appears to be still buried in the matrix. 

 Mr. Evans has pointed out the resemblance of this cast to 

 one taken by himself from the cranium of a crow, and still 

 more to that of a jay, observing that in the fossil the median 

 line which separates the two hemispheres of the brain is 

 visible. 



To conclude, we may learn from this valuable relic how 

 rashly the existence of Birds at the epoch of the Secondary 

 rocks has been questioned, simply on negative evidence, and 

 secondly, how many new forms may be expected to be brought 

 to light in strata with which we are already best acquainted, 

 to say nothing of the new formations which geologists are 

 continually discovering. 





