886 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



on the lee-side of the coral reef, and beautifully fluted Ammonite 

 shells sparkling under the tropical sun. A sea-crocodile (Geosaurus) 

 is stranded, and making violent efforts to free itself, churning the 

 water with its tail and paddles. Startled by the splashing, a pair of 

 long-tailed Pterosaurs, with tapering wings like Swifts, skim over 

 the shallow water and then rise high till they are lost like soaring 

 larks. On the beach there are patches of mosses and ferns and 

 club-mosses, but no flowers, not even of grass. Close to the shore 

 there are tree-ferns and Cycads, and farther inland a few araucaria- 

 like Conifers. One misses the modern swarms of insects, though there 

 are a few wasps, clumsy butterflies, and gorgeous dragonfiies with 

 a foot-long spread of iridescent wing. Among the club-mosses there 

 are smaU hairy creatures, somewhat like mice, but with less nimble 

 movements and less intelligent eyes. Some of them have a pouch 

 with two diminutive young ones, for these are primitive Marsupials. 



Suddenly a feathered creature (Archaeopteryx, of course) launches 

 itself from the top of a tree-fern, and tries ineffectively, half- 

 swooping, half-flying, to catch the glittering dragonfly, much less 

 of a novice in the air. Baulked of its booty, Archaeopteryx soars a 

 little and then sinks to the foot of a Cycad-tree. With the help of 

 its strong fore-claws it climbs to the top and rests. It has a grey head, 

 studded with scales, and we are told by this palaeontographical 

 Sherlock Holmes that Archaeopteryx had coral-red eyes, a black-and- 

 white feathered neck, and for the rest a plain brown plumage ! The 

 female, that is to say, for by and by a male comes gliding through 

 the air, reddish in the naked parts of head and neck, with deep 

 steel-coloured general plumage, and an inflatable throat-pouch of 

 scarlet hue. There is a courtship-display and mutual satisfaction. 

 But a second male arrives on the scene, and there is a fierce combat, 

 in the course of which both males fall off the tree and continue their 

 struggle among the ferns. A graceful little creature (a pigmy Dino- 

 saur, called Compsognathus), moving with the swiftness of an 

 arrow, darts through the undergrowth and laimches itself on the 

 combatants. In spite of warning cries from the female Archaeopteryx 

 on the branches, one of the rival males falls victim to the agile 

 Dinosaur. And here the curtain drops. 



We make no apology for borrowing this glimpse of the living 

 Archaeopteryx, for though some of the details may be fanciful, 

 Heilmann has shown a sound idea of how the story of the Ascent 

 of Life should — and may — some day be written. In any case there 

 is no doubt that Archaeopteryx was a very striking annectant type, 

 linking birds back to saurian ancestors. 



Before Arch^opteryx. — As we have seen, the really difficult 

 question is to find among the numerous stocks of extinct reptiles 

 the most probable ancestry of birds. 



