BIRDS WITH TEETH. 6 r 



but in grooves j as in Ichthyosaurus, the great lizard- 

 formed marine reptile. 



The skeleton of this toothed bird is pictured in our 

 illustration. Professor Marsh called it the Hcsperornis 

 Regalis. Before the discovery of teeth, Professor 

 Marsh had unhesitatingly classed the Hesperornis as a 

 gigantic diver, though recognising peculiarities of 

 structure. But recently, in a monograph on tho 

 Extinct Toothed Birds of North America, he called 

 attention to its resemblance in certain respects to the 

 ostrich. He says that if these characters are to be 

 "regarded as evidence of real affinity, the Hesper- 

 ornis would be essentially a gigantic swimming 

 ostrich." Professor Huxley, on the other hand, says 

 that the bird is " in a great many respects aston- 

 ishingly like an existing diver or grebe so like it, 

 indeed, that had this skeleton been found in a 

 museum, I suppose, if the head had not been known, 

 it would have been placed in the same general group 

 as the divers and grebes of the present day." 



The teeth seem to have been admirably adapted to 

 aid a diving-bird (like a grebe) in catching its slippery 

 prey. In the Odontopterix toliapicus of Owen, the 

 bony denticles were inclined at a considerable angle, 

 but with the points forward; yet Professor Owen 

 concluded that even such projections (they could not 

 properly be called teeth) must have greatly assisted 

 the bird in holding captured fish. In the existing 

 bird the Merganser serrator, the tooth-like serrations 

 are inclined with the points backwards. These serra- 



