BIRDS WITH TEETH. 21 



SUB-CLASS I. 



ORDER I. ORNITHOPAPPI. 



In 1861 Hermann von Meyer, the distinguished palaeontologist, described a bird's 

 feather found in the lithographic slate of Solenhofen, in Bavai-ia, belonging to the 

 upper Jurassic deposits. To the bird revealed by this feather, he gave the name of 

 Archceopteryx lithographica. The discovery was received with some incredulity, but 

 doubts were soon dispelled by Professor Owen's memoir in 1863. Herein he described 

 a slab found in the same deposits, which showed with remarkable clearness the hind- 

 quarters of the bird, which he rechristened Griphornis macrurus, a name he afterwards 

 abandoned. The pelvis, the legs, and the long tail furnished with feathers, were splen- 

 didly preserved ; but, except the wing feathers, which were disordered, and some loose 

 and dislocated bones belonging to the anterior extremities, all the rest of the skeleton 

 was wanting. 



In 1877 another slab was found, containing a second example of Archceopteryx, 

 which in many respects supplemented the other, as it is nearly or quite complete, show- 

 ing the head, the vertebras, ribs, and fore extremities, while the hind parts are in a less 

 satisfactory condition. The first specimen was bought by the British Musetim in Lon- 

 don, while the second one was secured by the museum at Berlin, Germany ; both have 

 been examined with the utmost care by men like Richard Owen, Carl Vogt, Professor 

 Marsh, and Dr. Ltitken, and from their descriptions the present account has been 

 compiled. The second specimen is shown in our plate. 



This bird is of the greatest interest on account of its age and its remarkable struc- 

 ture ; for not only is it the oldest bird known, although the first types of this class 

 may be expected to have originated as early as paleozoic times, but its wonderful 

 state of preservation enables us to throw light upon the history of the reptiloid ances- 

 tor's development into a feathered and flying bird, since in view of late discoveries it 

 cannot be denied that we have here one of the "missing links" between the two 

 classes, though Archceopteryx may still be regarded as belonging to the ornithic side 

 of the boundary. 



The first specimen was about as large as a crow, or a peregrine falcon ; the second 

 one is considerably larger, which may be due to sex; but I should not be surprised it' 

 they turned out to be two different species, as suggested by Professor Seeley, the Berlin 

 specimen having relatively longer digits, forearm, and legs, with proportionally shorter 

 feet. 



Carl Vogt remarks that the head is small, pyramidal, the top nearly flat, the occi- 

 put obliquely truncated, and the orbits large. Both he and Professor Marsh found 

 teeth actually in position, apparently in the premaxillary, as they are below or in front 

 of the nasal aperture. The form of the teeth, both crown and root, is very similar to 

 the teeth of Jfesperornis, one of the toothed birds of the cretaceous formation. The 

 fact that some teeth are scattered about near the jaw would suggest that they were 

 implanted in a groove. No teeth are known from the lower jaw, but they were 

 probably present. 



The presacral vertebra?, apparently twenty-one in number, are all, or nearly all, 

 biconcave, resembling in general form those of Ichthyomis, another cretaceous 



