TERTIARY ANIMALS. 



521 



ter. " Parrots and Trogons inhabited the woods ; Swallows built, in 

 the fissures of the rocks, nests in all probability like those now found 

 in certain parts of Asia and the Indian Archipelago ; a Secretary-bird, 

 nearly allied to that of the Cape of Good Hope, sought in the plains the 

 serpents and reptiles which at that time, 

 as now, must have furnished its nourish- 

 ment. Large Adjutants, Cranes, Flamin- 

 goes, Palaeolodi (birds of curious forms 

 intermediate between Flamingoes and or- 

 dinary Grallae), and Ibises, frequented the 

 margins of the water where insect-larvae 

 and mollusks abounded. Pelicans floated 

 on the lakes ; and, lastly, Sand-grouse and 

 numerous Gallinaceous birds assisted in 

 giving to this ornithological population a 

 strange physiognomy which recalls to 

 mind the descriptions giveu by Living- 

 stone of certain lakes in Southern Af- 

 rica." 



But although the class of birds was 

 already well differentiated, yet some rem- 

 nants of generalized forms still remained. 

 A toothed-bird has been found in the 

 London clay (Eocene), and named by 

 Owen Odontopteryx (Fig. 894). But this 

 is not a true socket-toothed bird. The 

 so-called teeth, however, are only denta- 

 tions of the bony edge of the bill. In the Eocene of the Paris basin 

 was found a gigantic bird (Gastornis) ten feet in height, combining 

 the characters of a wader with those of an ostrich (Fig. 893). 



Fig. 



893.— Restoration of Gastornis 

 Edwardsii <after Meunierj. 



Fig. 894.— Sknll of Odontopteryx toliapicus, restored (after Owen). 



In 1876 Cope published the discovery of a gigantic bird from the 

 lowest Eocene of the San Juan basin. The Diatryma gigantea, ac- 

 cording to Cope, combines the characters of the Cursores (ostrich 

 family) with those of the extinct Gastornis of the Paris basin. Judg- 



