VERTEBRATA: AVES. 593 



certain that some of the Deinosaurian Reptiles of the Triassic 

 period walked on their hind-legs only, and it is highly probable 

 that they were the real authors of the prints in question. If 





Fig. 328. Footprint supposed to belong to a Bird. Triassic Sandstones 

 of Connecticut. 



truly ornithic, we must admit the existence in the Triassic 

 period of a considerable number of kinds of Birds, some of 

 which must have been of colossal dimensions, but this question 

 does not admit of final settlement at present. 



The first unmistakable remains of a bird have been found 

 in the Solenhofen Slates of Bavaria, of the age of the Upper 

 Oolites. A single unique specimen, consisting of bones and 

 feathers, but unfortunately without the skull, is all that has 

 until recently been discovered; and it has been named the 

 Archczopteryx macrura. The characters of this singular and 

 aberrant bird, which alone constitutes the order Saururce, will 

 be given in treating of the order. 



In the Cretaceous rocks, not only do we find the remains 

 of Birds of the type now existing, but we meet with the ex- 

 traordinary " Toothed Birds" (Odontornithes), which seem not 

 to have survived this period, and which will be spoken of in 

 greater detail later on. Lastly, almost all the existing orders 

 of Birds are represented by the time we reach the middle of 

 the Tertiary period, and the distribution and characters of the 

 more important fossil forms will be treated of in discussing 

 the several orders in question. 



2 P 



