EARTH DRAGONS. 191 



which have followed the advent of man in com- 

 petition with the lower animals. 



These huge reptiles lived in an age of reptiles,, 

 when the Mammalia were at most only just emerg- 

 ing. They were the dominant type, and there- 

 fore had just as much intelligence as the times 

 required and no more. They do not owe their 

 structure to lack of reasoning powers, but to 

 other causes which we shall discuss later. 



As touching the relationship which has long 

 been held to exist between the dinosaurs and 

 the birds, those who have read the "Story 

 of Bird Life," may remember that certain strik- 

 ing points of resemblance were pointed out 

 between the hip-girdle and hind-limbs, in the 

 bipedal dinosaurs and birds. These resemblances, 

 it was suggested, were to be attributed rather 

 to a derivation from a common stock, than to 

 parallel development due to a similar mode of 

 locomotion. This view, first promulgated by 

 Huxley, has been widely accepted. Neverthe- 

 less, it is now being as widely discarded, and 

 we think rightly so. This is not the place 

 wherein to discuss the question of the bird's 

 ancestry, but we may perhaps be fairly expected 

 to offer some justification for the rejection of 

 an association apparently so well-founded and 

 commonly believed in. The view advanced by 

 Dr Gradow, that those dinosaurs which most 

 resemble Archseopteryx, the oldest known bird, 

 were its contemporaries, and therefore cannot 

 be regarded as ancestral forms, has this ob- 

 jection, that it does not take into considera- 

 tion the fact that though Archaeopteryx is the- 



