Remarkable Birds. 193 



remains to consider the more important question of 

 how the peculiar combination of general and spe- 

 cialised characters manifested in its structure origi- 

 nated. The two most striking features of Hesperornis 

 are the teeth and the limbs, and an inquiry in regard 

 to them first suggests itself. The teeth of Hes- 

 perornis may be regarded as a character inherited 

 from a reptilian ancestry. Their strong resemblance 

 to the teeth of reptiles, in form, structure, and 

 succession, is evidence of this, and their method of 

 implantation, in a common alveolar groove (Holco- 

 dont), conforms strictly to what we have in one 

 well-known group of reptiles, exemplified by Ichthy- 

 osaurus. This method of insertion in the jaw is a 

 primitive dental character, quite different from what 

 we should naturally expect as an accompaniment of 

 the modem style of vertebra, and is a much lower 

 grade than the implantation of the teeth in distinct 

 sockets (Thecodont), a feature characteristic of an- 

 other group of Odontothores, of which Ichthyornis 

 is the type. These teeth indicate unmistakably that 

 Hesperornis was carnivorous in habit, and doubtless 

 was descended from a long line of rapacious ances- 

 tors." 



Equally remarkable was the Archceopteryx — a bird 

 discovered in Germany. Here it is supposed was a 

 bird but partly feathered, representing the time 

 when feathers were developing. Its beaks were 

 armed with teeth, while its tail was an elongation of 

 the vertebrae, like the tail of a cat, from the sides of 

 which grew feathers, so that when the reptilian bird 

 flew, its tail constituted a rudder or guide. These 

 13 



