Vv 
BIRDS OF OLD 
“* With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
. . inf >? 
And snims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 
When we come to discuss the topic of the ear- 
liest bird —not the one in the proverb — our 
choice of subjects is indeed limited, being re- 
stricted to the famous and oft-described Arche- 
opteryx from the quarries of Solenhofen, which 
at present forms the starting-point in the his- 
tory of the feathered race. Bird-like, or at 
least feathered, creatures, must have existed 
before this, as it is improbable that feathers 
and flight were acquired at one bound, and 
this lends probability to the view that at least 
some of the tracks in the Connecticut Valley 
are really the footprints of birds. Not birds as 
we now know them, but still creatures wearing 
feathers, these being the distinctive badge and 
livery of the order. For we may well speak 
70 
