by the remains of two remarkable skeletons, belonging to that 
very wonderful reptile-like bird, Archeopteryx. 
Only two skeletons of this wonderful bird are known, and 
they were obtained, many years ago, from the Solenhofen, or 
Lithographic slates of Bavaria. The wing and tail feathers 
are as perfectly developed as in modern birds. But these 
precious fossils present two characters which have long since 
been lost by birds. The first of these is the presence of well- 
developed teeth in the jaws. The birds of to-day have horny 
beaks. The teeth bespeak the reptile. The second is the 
long, tapering tail, which is composed of a series of cylindrical 
bones, forming a lizard-like appendage. But each bone, be 
it noted, supported a pair of stiff tail-quills, so that the tail 
of this ancient bird, in its general appearance, differs in a 
very striking way from that of a modern bird, wherein these 
feathers seem all to spring from a common base, fan-wise. 
But as a matter of fact this appearance is deceptive, for the 
” 
large bone, or ‘“‘ pygostyle’’ which supports the tail feathers 
of the adult, is found, in the embryo, to be made up of a 
series of separate pieces, agreeing in number with those of 
the tail of the fossil ancestor, Archeopteryx. Each of these 
separate bones has, in fact, in the course of the ages, been 
shortened up to the condition of mere discs ; and this “ tele- 
scoping” of the vertebre has brought the once separated 
feathers close up, so that their bases lie packed in like the 
152 
