84 THE COMING OF THE BIRDS 



we saw, and its body was buried in a fine mud at the 

 bottom of a lake. Probably many were so buried, 

 but most of the rocks are still deep underground and 

 unexplored, while others have since been ground up 

 and used over agin. We were lucky to find this 

 petrified Archcuopteryx (Ancient Bird), as it is called. 



It was about the size of a crow, and its various 

 parts have been so finely turned into stone that, as far 

 as external appearance goes, we might as well have 

 the actual body. It has the unmistakable feathers 

 and wings of a bird. But it is like no bird in the 

 world to-day. It is half a reptile. There is a long 

 tail, like that of a lizard; a clear continuation of the 

 backbone far beyond the back legs, with large feathers 

 sticking out on each side of the tail. It has two rows 

 of teeth in its jaws; and no bird in nature to-day has 

 teeth. It has also perfectly formed feet and claws 

 on its front limbs, its wings; and there are very few 

 birds in nature now which have such toes, though 

 the majority have, underneath the skin, stunted little 

 bones which represent them. 



In the early days of evolution people used to talk 

 much about "missing links." In this case a very 

 important missing link was recovered. It is the link 

 between the reptile and the bird. If it were not for 

 the feathers, we should call it a flying reptile. It 

 perfectly illustrates the gradual conversion of a reptile 

 into a bird, as we sketched it in an earlier chapter. 



We saw that this evolution was an outcome of the 



