AVES. 



Aves is the possession of feathers, the earliest creature which can be 

 determined to have possessed this special prerogative of the birds is the 

 Archceopteryx. The remains of this curious animal were first discovered 

 in the sand-stone formation of Solenhofen in Bavaria, whence comes the 

 bulk of the stone used for lithographic purposes in the present day. The 

 original slab containing these priceless remains is now in the British 

 Museum, and with it we commence the study of the class Aves. The head 

 is, unfortunately, missing in this specimen, but the imprint of the tail is 

 clear enough, and shows a structure quite different from that which is to 

 be seen in any bird of modern times. It is longer than the body of the bird 

 itself, and, instead of the feathers being placed side by side, and capable of 

 being spread lilie a fan, we find in the Arclueopteryx the tail consisting of a 

 series of vertebrae, upon which the feathers were disposed laterally, while 

 there must evidently have been quills upon the wings. The digits of the 

 latter terminated in little claws or hooks, a condition which exists in some.of 

 our present-day birds, though the exact structure is modified. A second 

 specimen of an Archceopteryx was afterwards discovered in the same forma- 

 tion at Solenhofen, and has passed into the possession of the Berlin Museum. 

 In this individual the head has been preserved, and shows us a, reptilian- 

 looking skull with actual teeth. Thus we know that Archceopteryx possessed 

 teeth and feathers, but of a kind unlike those of any bird of modern times. 

 It introduces the first sub-class of birds, viz., the SaururcE. 



Among the numerous other members of the class Aves, which we shall 

 have to pass in revievv, will also occur several birds with teeth ; but these will 

 all be found to belong to a much earlier age than our own, so that we may 

 safely say that at the present day no really toothed bird exists. 



At the same time, there are found on the earth to-day many types of birds 

 which musb be considered to be the sur\ivors of very ancient bird-life ; and if 

 these do not belong exclusively to one type, or to any single order or family 

 of existing birds, we shall yet have little difiiculty in assigning to most of them 

 their proper position in the natural system. The idea that all toothed birds 

 must belong to one group is now held to be erroneous, and the notion that 

 the diving Hesperomis of the New World was allied to the Archceopteryx of 

 the Old World, simply because they both possessed teeth, is not admitted at 

 the present day. 



Granting, however, that our Passerine birds are the highest development 

 of the Avian form at present existing, it naturally follows that we must look 

 to a totally different type if we desire to connect the bird-life of the present 

 day with that of the past ; and the flightless birds, the ostriches, and their 

 kin, are admitted by all ornithologists to be the modern survivors of ancient 

 forms. Like the huge mammals and reptiles, which were the fore-runners of 

 the moderu representatives of these classes, the birds of the Struthioue order 

 of Madagascar (JE/iyornis) and the Moas of New Zealand were enormous. 

 A singular interest attaches to the ancient Struthiones, which were immensely 

 larger than their descendants of our own epoch. Thus the moas of New 

 Zealand attained a huge size, and, as far as recent researches carry us, they 

 must have been alive on the earth not so very long ago. The moas live in 

 the traditional history of the Maories; specimens have been unearthed with 

 the skin still attached to the bones ; moa-feathers have been found in some 

 number ; and much controversy has been excited as to whether they have 

 become extinct within the last hundred, or five hundred, years. That they 

 were living within historic times is certain. Of the ^Epyornis of Madagascar 



