CENOZOIC ERA. AGE OF MAMMALS. 



375 



Birds. It will be remembered that the earliest bird 

 known (the Jurassic Archseopteryx) was also the most 

 reptilian. In the Cretaceous 

 reptilian 

 ordinary 



we found both 

 toothed-birds and 

 water-birds. Now, in the 

 Tertiary, as in the present, 

 all the reptilian birds had 

 disappeared, and only typi- 

 cal birds remain ; and not 

 only water-birds, but also the 

 highest, viz., land-birds. In 

 other words, the bird-class 

 had now fairly separated it- 

 self from the reptilian, and 

 the connecting links were 

 all destroyed. 



Nearly all the families of 

 birds now existing have been 

 found in the Tertiary, but 

 also a few of strange forms. 

 The Gastornis, of the Eocene 

 of Paris (Fig. 339), was a 

 huge bird, ten feet high, and 

 a curious connecting link be- 

 tween waders and ostriches. Besides these curious forms, 

 many birds have been found, in the Tertiary of this coun- 

 try and in Europe, similar to those still living. But in 

 France, especially, the birds, like the plants and insects, 

 show a decided tropic climate. Parrots, trogons, ibises, 

 secretary-birds, and flamingoes inhabited France at that 

 time. 



Mammals. 



Remember that, although marsupials or reptilian mam- 

 mals were found in Jura-Trias, and doubtless continued 



FIG. 339. Eestoration of Gastornis 

 Eduardsii. (After Meunier.; 



