OF EVOLUTION. 35 



preceding the advent of the earliest known bird, 

 Archaeopteryx, although they do not acquire 

 any special development until the period following, 

 the Jurassic. It is to them that we owe those 

 remarkable foot-tracks which have made the red- 

 sandstone of the Connecticut Valley famous, 

 and which for full half a century after their 

 discovery were unhesitatingly referred to giant 

 birds of a type thought to be more or less 

 identical with that of the ostrich. So singularly 

 striking are the bird characters of these reptiles, 

 that for many years they have been looked upon 

 by many naturalists as the stock .whence the non- 

 flying or ostrich-like birds have been derived 

 the pterodactyls, or winged reptiles, furnishing 

 the line to the winged or flying birds and, indeed, 

 it has been thought that very nearly the exact type 

 could be pointed out which gave departure to 

 the birds. This has been indicated by Professor 

 Huxley to be near to Compsognathus. However 

 correct or incorrect this determination may be, 

 there can be no doubt in the face of the evidence 



