334 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



which grow a dozen coarse feathers. The first bird 

 in the order of time had its tail composed of a long 

 succession of little bones, each supporting two 

 feathers. Here is a picture of that tail just as it 

 was found in the rock where the strange creature 

 left its remains. The bird to which the tail belonged 

 is called by the learned an archaeopteryx, or ancient 

 winged animal. 

 "One more of these monsters, and that will suffice. 



,-~<«s^ 



Mammoth 



The animal that you see here is the mammoth, a 

 sort of enormous shaggy elephant, so tall that its 

 back would have touched the ceiling in most of our 

 great halls. Its height was as much as six meters. 

 By its side the ordinary elephant, the largest of 

 extant terrestrial animals, would look no larger than 

 a sheep beside an ox. 



"Its tusks, which had a pronounced backward 

 curve, measured four meters in length and weighed 

 as much as four hundred and eighty pounds each. 



