DIVISIONS OF BIRDS. 



307 



fessor Marsh. In this Bird (fig. 221) we have a gigantic diving- 

 bird, standing som.e live feet in height, but with the wings quite 

 rudimentary, so that the power of flight was entirely absent. The 

 tail was not elongated, as it is in Archieopteryx, but consists of about 

 twelve vertebrae, of which the last three or four are amalgamated 



Fig. 221 — Slicletoii of 7fps^» r r?j?b rf(;a?is, restored (After Marsh.) 

 About oiie-tentili of tlie natural size. 



to form a single mass. The bodies of the vertebrie have the form 

 usual among Birds. Tlie jaws are furnished with numerous conical 

 recurved teeth, sunk in a deep contiiuious groove. The metacarpal 

 bones are wanting, and the steriuun is destitute of a keel. 



Order HI. Odontotorm.'e. 



This order comprises only some singular fossil Birds from the 

 Cretaceous rocks of North America, of which the genus Ichtht/ornis 



