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 
vertebre 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 aérated 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. 
