252 WALKS AND TALKS. 



wonderful mesozoic time, behold a real bird on the wing. 

 Clothed with proper feathers and constituted a bird, it is yet 

 reptilian. Its long and lizard-like tail, vertebrated to the ex- 

 tremity, is furnished with proper quills, but can not conceal 

 its kinship with the reptiles. It comes out of the empire of 

 reptiles and brings reminiscences of the reptiles with it. 



A higher type is now standing at the threshold of being. 

 A knell is sounding the funeral of the reptilian dynasty. The 

 saurian hordes shrink away before tLte approach of a superior 

 being. After a splendid reign, the dynasty of reptiles crum- 

 bles to the ground, and we know it oiJy from the history 

 written in its ruins. 



XL,IV. MAMMALIAN 



CJENOZOIC TIMES. 



THE striking figures which appealed to our wonder during 

 our walk through the Mesozoic JEon, diverted attention from 

 some very humble but very suggestive creatures which man- 

 aged to elude the dangers threatening them under a rule 

 which knew only cruelty and extermination. These creatures 

 were little mammals. Only one species is known to have ex- 

 isted in America; and we are indebted to Professor Enimons 

 for bringing to light its remains in the red sandstone of North 

 Carolina. The lower jaw is armed with a series of teeth 

 somewhat like those of the common mole. It seems, there- 

 fore, to have been insectivorous. Its nearest relative among 

 living mammals is the Banded Anteaier of Australia, a small 

 animal with a fox-like appearance. We call it Drom-a-the f - 

 ri-um, or "Running-beast." It is singular that a very similar 

 mammal lived in the same age in the Old World. Some of its 

 remains have been found at Wiirtemberg, and others, at 

 Frome, England. Another Triassic mammal has recently 

 been described by Professor Owen from South Africa, as large 

 as a gray fox, and remarkably specialized. All these mam- 

 mals are most distinctly mammalian. They do not look like 



