INTRODUCTION. 7 



individuals as the pigeon, humming-bird, whip-poor-will, 

 cuckoos , parrots, thrushes, crows, etc. A great variety of 

 birds is embraced in the order of Insessores. For a large ma- 

 jority of them, their food consists of insects, and their larvae 

 or eggs ; and while in all the feet are well adapted for perch- 

 ing, the bill and wings will be found to vary according t3 the 

 habits of the bird. Swallows, fly-catchers, tyrants, etc., 

 pursue their food upon the wing; they possess, therefore, 

 great powers of flight. The mouth is wide, the bill broad at 

 tae base, and sometimes armed at the extremity with a slight 

 hook. Warblers, thrushes, wrens, and many others, seek 

 their food among the branches and leaves of the trees, feed- 

 ing mostly upon worms, the chrysalis, or the eggs. They are 

 possessed of extraordinary agility in hopping about from twig 

 to twig in search of food. Some birds of the order Insessores 

 live on seeds and nuts ; such are furnished with a strong, 

 short beak, quite thick at the base, and two mandibles some- 

 times working together like a pair of scissors. To this class 

 belong the finches, sparrows, cross-bills, and many more. 



The earliest traces of the existence of birds on the globe 

 have been supposed to be the so-called birds' tracks in the tri- 

 assic sand-stones of the Connecticut Valley, many fine speci- 

 mens of which may be seen in the Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, Central Park, New York. But it is now thought most of 

 these tracks were made by reptiles and amphibious creatures. 

 A nearly complete bird has been recently discovered in the 

 lithographic slates of Solenhofen. It is supposed to form a 

 kind of connecting link between birds and reptiles. Fossil 

 birds have been found in the green sand of New Jersey, the 

 cretaceous beds of Kansas, and the tertiary deposits of Wyo- 

 ming and Idaho. A bird with teeth has been found in the 

 cretaceous beds of Fort Harker, Kansas. The great bird of 

 Madagascar, JEpiomis maximus, was twelve feet in hight, 

 and the contents of one of its eggs equal to one hundred and 

 forty-eight hens' eggs. One of the great extinct birds of New 

 Zealand had legs and feet nearly as massive as those of the 

 elephant. Visitors to New York, who are curious in such 

 matters, may see the skeletons of some of these gigantic birds 



4 at the Museum of Natural History. 

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