GENESIS OF BIRD-SONG. 89 



this means we may get a clew to the origin of 

 bird-song. 



The first traces in the paleozoic rocks of 

 anything resembling bird life are well-defined 

 footprints; these, however, have been at- 

 tributed to certain ancient reptiles having 

 feet approaching those of some aquatic fowls 

 in form. Next come organic remains frag- 

 mentary skeletons, for the most part, of 

 strange saurians and bat-like flying animals, 

 having membranous wings and the beak 

 of a toothed bird. No sign of a feather was 

 observable, however, among all the fossil 

 records, up to the discovery of an imperfect 

 skeleton and partial cast of a strange creature 

 named Archceopteryx, half bird, half reptile, 

 in the lithographic slate of Solenhofen, 

 Bavaria. A transition state between the bat- 

 like, bird-billed reptiles above noted and our 

 present ornithic forms could not be better ex- 

 pressed than by Archseopteryx, so far as 

 anatomy and exterior structural points are 

 concerned. This initial bird, so to call it, ap- 

 pears to have possessed a very oddly arranged 

 suit of feathers, consisting of retrices (ar- 

 ranged regularly on the sides of a very long, 

 twenty- jointed tail) and wing-feathers, its 

 body having no plumage, probably, or at 

 best mere rudimentary, down-like feathers. 

 As to whether this rude bird had a voice, it 

 is useless to inquire, since the head and ster- 

 num are wanting ; but I think we may safely 

 doubt the existence of more than the ob- 

 scurest development of vocal organs in birds 

 having toothed reptile jaws and by-concave 

 vertebrae, as in the case of some of the Odon- 

 tornithes, so ably studied and arranged by 

 Professor Marsh. The fish-eating birds of 

 our own time have not much voice, as a rule, 



