AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
[THIRD SERIES.] 
Art. XLV.—Jurassic Birds and their Allies; by Professor 
O. C. MarsH. 
[Read before Section D., British Association for the Advancement of Science, at 
York, Sept. 2d, 1881.] 
ABouT twenty years ago, two fossil animals of great interest 
were found in the lithographic slates of Bavaria. One was 
the skeleton of Archwopleryx, now in the British Museum, and 
the other was the Compsognathus preserved in the Royal Mu- 
seum at Munich. A single feather, to which the name Arche- 
opteryx was first applied by Von Meyer, had previously been 
discovered at the same locality. More recently, another skele- 
ton has been brought to light in the same beds, and is now in 
the Museum of Berlin. These three specimens of Archwopteryx 
are the only remains of this genus known, while of Compsogna- 
thus the original skeleton is, up to the present time, the only 
representative. 
en these two animals were first discovered, they were 
both considered to be reptiles by Wagner, who described 
Compsognathus, and this view has been held by various authors 
own to the present time. e best authorities, however, now 
agree with Owen that Archeopteryz is a bird, and that Oompso- 
es as Gegenbaur and Huxley have shown, is a Dinosaurian 
reptile. 
Having been engaged for several years in the investigation 
of American Mesozoic birds, it became important for me to 
study the European forms, and I have recently examined with 
Am. Jour. — Series, Vo. XXII, No. 131.—Novemper, 1881. 
