172 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES. 



low order of birds ; but, on the other hand, 

 perfectly formed wings and a well-keeled ster- 

 num are the salients of the highest bird-develop- 

 ment, and Ichthyornis had these, despite its 

 teeth and fishy vertebrae. I venture to suspect 

 that if a fairly preserved fossil skeleton, includ- 

 ing the bill, of a poll parrot could be found in 

 any of the mesozoic formations, no scientist 

 would be able, without any knowledge of the 

 parrot family save what the fossil afforded, to 

 discover the bird's curious vocal gifts. 



The perching feet of Archceopteryx would 

 give it a leading characteristic of the passeres, 

 and it may have had the syrinx of the oscines, 

 despite its vertebrate, lizard-like tail ; and so, 

 too, Ichthyornis, notwithstanding its reptile 

 jaws and teeth and its bi-concave vertebra, 

 may have been able to sing divinely. It was 

 a small bird, scarcely larger than a pigeon, 

 with a skeleton closely similar to those of the 

 highest ornithological types, saving the teeth and 

 bi-concave vertebra ; and who shall dispute that 

 such a creature might have made the woods 

 ring with its voice. True, it has been thought 

 an aquatic bird, simply because the formation 

 in which its remains rested is of marine ori- 

 gin, and on account of its teeth. There have 

 been great changes, great progress and great 

 retrogression, since the middle cretaceous pe- 

 riod ; but my suggestion is complete without 

 knowing or caring about the voice of Ichthy- 

 ornis. I have traced bird-song back into the 

 mesozoic age, and have set the music of the 

 rocks to ringing in the ears of my imaginative 

 readers. If, as embryology appears to teach, 

 the birds have come through the fish and rep- 

 tile forms to their present beautiful state, by 



