94 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



The remains of a bird named Hesperornis have there 

 been found which had true teeth in its jaws, bvit was 

 yet more remarkable for what it had not. It had only 

 a feeble upper arm bone, to the end of this was attached 

 but a rudiment of the lower arm. There also has been 

 found anothei- bird with teeth, named Ichthyornis, because 

 the form of the segments of its backbone recalled to 

 mind the form of the same parts in a fish. 



But the most ancient bird yet known was found in 

 1 86 1 in oolitic strata in Bavaria. This was the renowned 

 Archeopteryx, which diftered remarkably from every other 

 bird we know. We have already said that every existing 

 bird, whether its tail feathers are long or short, has 

 them supported on a fleshy pad, which contains the 

 bones of a very short tail. This '' pad " is w^iatis known 

 in the fowl as the '' parson's nose." But the archeo- 

 pteryx had no such short tail, but instead, a very long 

 one, composed of no less than twenty bones, to each of 

 which two long feathers, one on either side, were 

 attached. Its hand also w^as very exceptional. 



The changes which we thus see to have taken place 

 in the course of ages, lend additional interest to the 

 question — Whence did birds arise? It has been sug- 

 gested that they w^ere derived from certain long extinct 

 reptiles. These reptiles have been named JJiuosaicria, 

 and are represented by the large lyuanodon (discovered 

 many years ago by Dr. Mantel), which once wandered 

 and grazed in the Weald of Kent and Sussex and in 

 what is now the Isle of Wight. Travellers to Euro})e 

 may see a magnificent example of this creature, in 

 the form of its skeleton, admirably set uj), in the 

 Museum of Natural History at Brussels. It has also 

 been suggested that birds are allied, by descent, 

 to those flying reptiles, the pterodactyles, and an in- 



