CHAPTER XXII 

 1868 



In 1868 he published five scientific memoirs, amongst 

 them his classification of birds and " Remarks upon Archse- 

 opteryx Lithographica " {Proc. Roy. Soc. xvi. 1868, pp. 243- 

 248). This creature, a bird with reptilian characters, was a 

 suggestive object from which to popularise some of the far- 

 reaching results of his many years' labour upon the mor- 

 phology of both birds and reptiles. Thus it led to a lecture 

 at the Royal Institution, on February 7, " On the Animals 

 which are most nearly intermediate between Birds and 

 Reptiles." 



Of this branch of work Sir M. Foster says : (Obit. Not. 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lix.) : — 



One great consequence of these researches was that science 

 was enriched by a clear demonstration of the many and close 

 affinities between reptiles and birds, so that the two hence- 

 forward came to be known under the joint title of Sauropsida, 

 the amphibia being at the same time distinctly more separated 

 from the reptiles, and their relations to fishes more clearly signi- 

 fied by the joint title of Ichthyopsida. At the same time, proof 

 was brought forward that the line of descent of the Sauropsida 

 clearly diverged from that of the Mammalia, both starting from 

 some common ancestry. And besides this great generalisation, 

 the importance of which, both from a classificatory and from an 

 evolutional point of view, needs no comment, there came out 

 of the same researches numerous lesser contributions to the 

 advancement of morphological knowledge, including among 

 others an attempt, in many respects successful, at a classification 

 of birds. 



This work in connection with the reptilian ancestry of 

 birds further appears in the paleontological papers published 

 316 



