FOUND LINKS. 



129 



toothless, and to have been sheathed in horn like those 

 of birds. But these reptiles are not " links." They 

 stand, not between birds and reptiles, but at the end 

 of their own side-branch of the great tree of animal 

 life. Still, from the reptile-side, it may lastly be 

 shown that the " found links " connecting them with 

 birds it may be, of course, in different lines from 

 those indicated by Archsoopteryx and its neighbours 



Fig. 4. Compsognathus (restored in outline). 



already find a place in the geological museum. In 

 those curious reptiles, of which Compsognathus (Fig. 4) 

 is the best known example, the characters of birds 

 and reptiles were united in a literally surprising 

 degree. Imagine a reptile possessing a swan-like 

 neck, with toothed and bird-like jaws; suppose, further, 

 that this animal had very rudimentary front limbs, 

 and that it walked on its two hind limbs like a bird, 



K. 



