82 ] Birds of Farm and Zoo 



was recorded. Let's pretend to look through their magic spyglass 

 at the world that existed about 150 million years ago. What do 

 we see? 



Dinosaurs of many shapes and sizes are wandering over the 

 land, crocodiles are swarming in the rivers, and lizards are running 

 over dry, sandy stretches. In addition to these weird creatures on 

 the surface of the earth, we see others soaring overhead; but they 

 do not seem to be flying so much as gliding. 



It does not take us long to realize that these air-borne animals 

 have a big advantage over the earth-bound monsters, for they can 

 swoop earthward, seize a victim, and then soar up to a perch and 

 devour their prey at leisure without danger of attack from enemies. 

 As we look closer, we see that these strange gliders are not birds: 

 They have no feathers. Aside from their flying powers, they are 

 not unlike the reptiles on the ground. 



We look again. This time we see another flying creature. This 

 one has feathers! It is a bird. 



THE EARLIEST KNOWN BIRD 



Most boys and girls take delight in impressive-sounding, 

 mouth-rolling words, and your child will enjoy learning the name 

 that has been given to this earliest known bird: Archaeopteryx 

 (arck-ee-op'-ter-ix) . This word combines two Greek terms meaning 

 "ancient wing." 



Archaeopteryx had teeth in its upper and lower jaws and was 

 equipped with a long tail. It was its feathers that took it out of 

 the realm of reptiles. In time the teeth were to disappear and the 

 mouth formation was to change until it became a hard beak more 

 adapted to pecking than biting. 



Very gradually, over a long period of time, the flying reptiles 

 disappeared while birds grew more numerous and varied. After 

 Archaeopteryx there is a lapse of millions of years in the known 

 history of birds. By the time their story is resumed by fossils of 

 a much later age, they had become specialized and diverse: They 

 were more akin to modern birds than to Archaeopteryx. Scientists 

 believe that some of the birds that enliven our earth today have 

 existed in their present form for over a million years. 



