CHAPTEE II 



ARCHAEORNITHES NEOBNITHES RATITAE NEORNITHES 



ODONTOLCAE. 



THE Class AVES is divided by Dr. Gadow (Bronn's Klassen 

 und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, Aves, Systemat. Theil, p. 299) 

 into two Sub -Classes of like value, ARCHAEORNITHES and 

 NEORNITHES, though some writers prefer to consider the 

 former as of equal rank only to the several subdivisions of the 

 latter here adopted, namely, Ratitae, Odontolcae, and Carinatae 

 (p. 25). The question is clearly one of degree, and depends 

 entirely on the amount of weight assigned to the various points 

 of distinction to be mentioned below. 



The Sub-Class ARCHAEORNITHES is at present represented 

 by but one member, the first undoubted fossil Bird, made known 

 in 1861 by Andreas Wagner from the Jurassic slate formation of 

 Solenhofen in Bavaria, and now preserved in the British Museum. 

 This he described under the name of Griphosaurus ; but as 

 Hermann von Meyer had already bestowed the title of Archae- 

 opteryx litliographica, upon a bird, presumably identical, a feather 

 of which had been obtained from the above system, the latter 

 appellation has a prior claim. In 1877 a second example, now 

 at Berlin, was procured from the same beds, 1 since which date 

 Meyer's specific name has become firmly established, in place of 

 that of macrura given by Owen to "Wagner's specimen. 



This very remarkable animal, about the size of a Eook, is 

 without doubt a connecting link between Eeptiles and Birds ; 

 but zoologists are practically unanimous in regarding it as an 

 Avine form, with Eeptilian affinities and probably arboreal habits. 



The sternum was possibly furnished with a weak keel, the 

 strong wide furcula was U-shaped, the ribs had no uncinate 

 processes, while in all probability the coracoid and scapula made 



1 Cf. W. Dames, Pal. Abhandl. ii. 1884, pp. 119-196 ; transl. Geol. Mag. 1884, pp. 

 418-424 ; Vogt, Ibis, 1880, pp. 434-456 ; Hurst, Nat. Sci. vi. 1895, pp. 112-122, 180-186, 

 244-248 ; Pycraft, op. cit. v. 1894, pp. 350-360, 437-448 ; viii. 1896, pp. 261-266. 



