FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS. 



These last are supposed to have been made by some crustaceous 

 animal crawling along the bottom of an estuary ; for between the 

 rows of footprints are in some cases observed the impressions of 

 the belly, and in others the trail of the tail. 



183. Footprints of birds have been discovered in several quar- 

 ries in the valley of the Connecticut river, and also in different 

 parts of the state of Massachusetts. Several specimens of these 

 are now in the British Museum. The most remarkable of these 

 is a slab, eight feet by six, exhibiting various tracks of birds, 

 (fig. 110). 



Fig. 110. Fossil footsteps of birds. 



| 



All these marks belong to the birds called waders, and appear 

 to have been made upon the sea-shore. Some are small, others of 

 a size so enormous that they could only have belonged to birds 

 twice the size of the largest ostrich. In one case the footprint 

 measures fifteen inches in length by ten in width, without count- 

 ing the hind-claw, which itself measures two inches. The distance 



135 



