THE CHALK PERIOD 



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oped. They frequented the same seas and places as 

 the HesperomiS) and yet the two were farther apart in 

 structure than any two types of birds now living. 

 Compared with the Archceopteryx, both these types 

 of birds show progress in the shortening of the long, 

 curiously feathered tail and the loss of the fingers and 

 claws; but both retained the teeth of primitive birds. 

 We may perhaps be allowed to depart from the strict 

 adherence to geologic chronology by tracing here, instead 

 of in the next chapter, the subsequent history of the 

 early birds. In the strata of the next era remains of 

 various birds were found. One of great interest, on 

 account of its enormous size, was the Pharorachus of 

 America. It was rather like, in type, a living bird 

 known as the Cariama or Screamer. But if the extinct 

 bird (of which the skull only has been found) had the 

 general proportions and habits of the Cariama it must 

 have been a terrible monster, standing some twelve feet 

 high, and far exceeding the most powerful eagles and 

 vultures in strength and the size of its beak and 

 claws. Great extinct wingless birds are found in the 

 quite recent "alluvial" deposits in New Zealand and 

 Madagascar. 



Something more than half a century ago a piece of 

 bone was sent to Sir Richard Owen by a visitor to 

 New Zealand who had just arrived there, and who had 

 found it in his garden. Professor Owen, on examination, 

 was able to say, from the general make and structure 

 of the bone, that it was the bone of a bird. It was 

 about seven or eight inches long. On examining the 



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