March 25, 1880.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



H5 



%iitnrnl Jfistorg. 



GIANT LIZARDS OF THE JURASSIC. 



FAB. away to the Westward, on the flanks of the Rocky; 

 Mountains, is the burial-plaee of a race of giants. 

 Stretching along the base of the rugged and frowning 

 mountains for miles upon miles, embracing in its wide 

 extent every variety of country, lonely and rurely 

 trodden by the foot of man, it is a fit resting-place for 

 their huge race about which history and tradition are 

 silent, The enormous buttes which at intervals rise 

 in massive proportions above the level of the surrounding 

 plain, might be taken for huge tumuli erected by a savage 

 race in memory of their dead, as the mounds of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley were built to commemorate their departed, 

 by the strange people who have left these works behind 

 them as their only monuments. 



And, indeed, the analogyis less forced than might be im- 

 agined; for, if we dig into these buttes in the bad lands of 

 the West, we often find them filled with the bones of this 

 extinct and unknown tribe, just as in the mounds of Ohio 

 we find the remains of the mound-builders. But bow dif- 

 ferent are the relics which are uncovered. In the one case 

 are brought to light a few crumbling human bones, some 

 cinders and charred sticks, a dozen copper beads, with a 

 few broken arrow-heads and perhaps some fragments of 

 pottery ; in the buttes of the Jurassic Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, the bones that are unearthed are huge and 

 black, and are turned to solid rock. So enormous are 

 they in many cases that to lift one of them would tax 

 the strength of the stoutest man, and some of them 

 would weigh many hund red pounds. Great femora, six 

 feet and more in length and eighteen inches in greatest 

 diameter, vertebras eighteen inches across and ten in 

 length, pelvic bones as large as a table, and shoulder- 

 blades four or five feet long and two feet across, are 

 some of the reliqaiee. uncovered by the explorer, The 

 remains of a single skeleton may weigh several tons, and 

 the bones are frequently found in as perfect a state of 

 preservation as though they had been covered up but yes- 

 terday. Sometimes, it is true, they are extensively 

 Cracked and broten by the enormous pressure to which 

 they have been subjected by the superincumbent earth 

 for so many millions of years ; but even in such cases it 

 is possible, by careful collecting, to piece them together 

 so as to obtain not only an accurate idea of their form, but 

 even their exact dimensions. With the enormous bones 

 referred to are found others of more moderate dimen- 

 sions ; but, as a rule, the remains buried in these deposits 

 belonged to creatures of great size. 



Mesozoic time has been well called the age of reptiles, 

 for it was during this period of ths earth's history that 

 reptiles were the dominant type, and flourished in mar- 

 velous profusion, being not less remarkable for then- 

 numbers than for the great variety of forms which then 

 appeared. Among these reptiles perhaps no group was 

 more strange — certainly none was more interesting — than 

 the order termed the Dinosauria. They were strange on 

 account of the great difference in size which existed be- 

 tween the various forms of the order, for certain of the 

 genera are the largest animals known to have lived on 

 land, while others were no larger than a cat, and they 

 are of especial interest to the anatomist, because through 

 them we are enabled to connect two at present widely 

 separated classes— the birds and the living reptiles. 

 Dinosaurs occur abundantly in Europe as well as in 

 America, and many species have been described from 

 the Mesozoic deposits of England and Germany. The 

 bones of these animals have been found in considerable 

 numbers in the cretaceous deposits of New Jersey, and 

 in one instance in the so-called J ura-Trias of Massa- 

 chusetts. Though the remains of Dinosaurs are very 

 rare in the deposits of the Connecticut Valley, evidences 

 of their presence are numerous. These consist of the 

 footprints of the animals made in the sand or mud of the 

 sea-beach or the shore of the estuary on which they 

 lived, and these impressions having been covered up by 

 subsequent deposits and hardened, have remained to this 

 day indelible witnesses of the number and variety of the 

 huge beasts that made them. Many of these tracks are 

 three-toed, and bear some resemblance to the tracks of 

 birds, and it was for a long time supposed that all the 

 three-toed footprints were made by animals of this class ; 

 and as some of these footmarks were no less than twenty 

 inches long, much speculation was indulged in as to the 

 character and habits of the supposed enormous bird that 

 made them. Recently, however, it has been shown that 

 many of the Dinosaurs have three toes on their hind feet, 

 and further, in connection with almost all the three-toed 

 traoks, have found impressions of very small four or five- 

 toed feet, showing that the three-toed tracks were made 

 by animals that habitually walked on their hind legs, and 

 only occasionally lowered ,their Bmall fore feet to the 

 ground. This state of things precisely agrees with what 

 is known of the structure of the Dinosaurs ; and hence, 

 in the absence of any direct evidence that the tracks 

 were made by birds, it is only fair to assume that they be- 

 long to Dinosaurs. 



This order of reptiles lias been divided by anatomists 



into five groups. The sub-order Sauropoda includes 

 animals of great bulk which habitually walked upon all 

 four legs, as indicated by the nearly equal size of thefore 

 and hind lirnbs, and hi which the long bones were with- 

 out any cavities for the marrow. The Sauropoda ap- 

 pear to have all been vegetable feeders, as shown by 

 their teeth, and were great, slow-movmg, unwieldy 

 creatures of very low intelligence. The Ornitho£>oda 

 were another group of herbivorous Dinosaurs, but 

 differed widely from the Sauropoda. The fore limbs 

 were much smaller than the hind lirnbs, and the latter 

 present man)- points of resemblance to the legs of birds. 

 The carnivorous Dinosaurs, of which Megalosaurus of 

 England may be regarded as typical, constitute another 

 division of this order. They were of smaller size than 

 the Sauropoda, were more lightly built, and were thus 

 more active and better fitted for capturing their prey. 

 The fore limbs were much reduced in size, and the usual 

 mode of progression appears to have been by walking or 

 leaping on the hind limbs. The teeth were serrated and 

 keen and trenchant, and the feet were armed with long, 

 sharp claws. The carnivorous Dinosaurs, no doubt, 

 preyed upon their larger but more sluggish herbivorous 

 cotemporaries. 



A fourth sub-order of Dinosaurs is the Compsognatlia. 

 These were animals of small size, and were in many re- 

 spects very bird-like in structure. They had long necks, 

 long, light heads, somewhat resembling a bird's, the 

 jaws armed with teeth, and had the femur, or thigh 

 bone, shorter than the tibia, or shin bone. The fore limbs 

 were very small, and the hinder ones large. This sub- 

 order has but few representatives, but it is probable that 

 the American genus Nanosaurns belongs here. 



Another very remarkable group of Dinosaurs were the 

 Slegomwria. These were of great size, and had large 

 fore and hind limbs, the latter, however, being the long- 

 est. The head was very small, the tail very large and 

 long, and +he animal was protected against the attacks of 

 its enemies by an armor of huge bony plates and by great 

 horn-covered spines, some of them over two feet in 

 length. 



It is difficult for us to understand, in the present state 

 of our knowledge, just how these strange creatures, so 

 different from anything that we now know, lived, and 

 equally so for us to attempt to picture to ourselves their 

 surroundings and their contemporaries. life was abundant 

 at this epoch, and extremely varied. Small mammals, al- 

 most the first of their kind, had appeared, but the largest 

 of them scarcely exceeded in size the weasels of to-day, 

 and all were probably marsupials. There were also 

 crocodilians and turtles in great abundance, and strange 

 fishes, of the genus Oeratodus, one representative of 

 which still lives in Australia, inhabited the waters about 

 the shores of which the Dinosaurs dwelt in such abund- 

 ance. Vegetation was luxuriant and the climate was 

 tropical in its warmth. It is very probable that in 

 America pterodactyles were also abundant, as they cer- 

 tainly were in Europe. One fragment of a pterodactyle 

 has, indeed, been described from the Jura of the Rocky 

 Mountains, but the rock in which the Dinosaurs are 

 found is not well adapted to the preservation of such 

 delicate bones. It is also likely that birds were repre- 

 sented here, though of this we have as yet no evidence, 

 But the presence in rocks of this age in Europe of the 

 strange Areheopteryx warrants us in supposing that the 

 pterodactyles were not the only inhabitants of the air. 



Such were some of the features of the animal life in 

 this country during Jurassic time, though we have been 

 able to touch only in the briefest manner on some of its 

 most marvelous facts. In its abundance and variety it is 

 even more interesting than iu differences between 

 the forms then living and those now upon the earth. 



Many facts will be required before we can gain an ade- 

 quate conception of the marvels of this long past age, but 

 the hints which we already have indicate that the story, 

 when told, will be a most interesting one. 



Notes, — We have recently received the Monthly Jour- 

 nal of the Virginia State Agricultural Society, which con- 

 tains, together with a number of other interesting ar- 

 ticles, a sketch on "The Beaver in Virginia," by Mr. 

 Richard Irby, of Ashland, Va. The article though brief 

 is interesting, and in view of the frequent queries by our 

 correspondents as to the abundance of the beaver in the 

 South, we do not hesitate to recommend it to them. So 

 far as the author speaks of what he himself has observed 

 the article is, of course, perfectly reliable and trust- 

 worthy, but we venture to suggest that the same cannot 

 be said of his quotations. The statement by a recent 

 writer in Wide Aioake that the beavers, in the construc- 

 tion of their dams, transport mud from place to place 

 upon their tails, " which are broad and flat," is especially 

 open to criticism. We had supposed that this and its 

 companion story, that these "ingenious and intelligent 

 animals'' use the tail as a trowel for pressing and smooth- 

 ing the mud on their dams, had long since been rele- 

 gated to the limbo of fable. We confess that the state- 

 ment that the Northern beavers employ their daniB as 

 habitations is also new to us, and we are at a loss to know 

 from what authority Mr. Irby quotes. 



The explanation given of the reappearance of the 



beaver in streams which flow into the Chesapeake is 

 very interesting, and we are glad that the facts in regard 

 to the point have been put on record. 



Mr. H, W. Henshaw's ornithological report to Capt. 

 George M, Wheeler upon collections made in portions of 

 California, Nevada and Oregon, which is published in the 

 report of the Chief of Engineers for 1879, is an extremely 

 valuable pamphlet. The region examined by its author 

 "amounted practically to a continuous line from Carson, 

 near the. western border of Nevada, and a little south of 

 the Central Pacific Railroad, to the Dalles, on the Col- 

 umbia River," and the work extended over the summers 

 of 1877 and 1878. 



A region so interesting, when explored by such an or- 

 nithologist as Mr. Henshaw, could scarcely fail to furnish 

 very interesting results, and the annotated list of one 

 hundred and eighty-four species which he has given us 

 fully justifies our expectations. The notes on the habits 

 of many little known species are very full, and add 

 much to our knowledge of the bird life of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada and Cascade ranges. For the important conclusions 

 which the writer reaches, we must refer our readers to 

 the pamphlet itself. It should be in the library of every 

 ornithologist. 



We wish to call the attention of the readers of this 

 column to the very interesting report of the Commis- 

 sioners of Fisheries of the State of Maine, to be noticed in 

 our Fish Culture column. Messrs. Stillwell and Smith 

 have Bet about their work with; vigor, and their efforts 

 are already bringing forth good fruit. 



Professor A. E. Verrill, of Yale College, has recently- 

 published in " The Transactions of the Connecticut Aca- 

 demy" a portion of Iris most important and valuable 

 paper on " The Cephalopods of the Northeastern Coast of 

 America." So far as published (Part I.), it treats of The 

 Gigantic Squids and their Allies. This part is illustrated 

 by twelve plates. 



The subject is a most interesting one, and the paper 

 well worthy of the subject. It is our intention, if the de- 

 mands upon our space will admit of it, to give some ex- 

 tracts from Prof. Verrill's article at an early day, 

 ♦ 



Parasites in a Duck's Fhssb.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream.— Through the kindness of a professional col- 

 league I had the opportunity of examining a wild duck 

 (mallard) a few days ago, which was, I think, of suffi- 

 cient interest to wan-ant the begging of a few lines of 

 your valuable space. The duck was infested with a large 

 number of encysted parasites of the same general nature 

 as the trichinae found in the muscles of pigs, i. e., an en- 

 cysted form of entozoa. It had been bought in the mar- 

 ket by a gentleman, but when his cook came to prepare 

 it for the spit, she noticed an unusual appearance of the 

 flesh of the breast, the skin being torn in one place, and 

 called the master's attention to it, and it was by him sub- 

 mitted to my friend, who, after sending out a piece cut 

 from the heart to the Zoological Museum at Cambridge 

 was kind enough to send the bird to me, knowing that I 

 was interested in everything pertaining to field sports. 

 The muscles of the duck were crowded with the encysted 

 parasites, more especially the pectorals, and they seemed 

 to be more numerous at the surface, i. e., just under the 

 skin. The cysts were from 5-32 to 6-32 of an inch long 

 by about 1-32 in width, being all very nearly of the same 

 dimensions. They may be described as cylindrical, with 

 rather bluntly rounded off ends, about the color of fat 

 or rather light-colored butter, and were imbedded in the 

 muscles, between the fibers, with the long diameter par- 

 allel with the muscular fibers. I cannot think of any 

 better well-known object to which to compare them 

 tl.au small pieces of that form of Italian paste which we 

 call vermicelli. Their number may be appreciated, when 

 I say that in the space of a square inch on the breast, the 

 skin of which had been stripped off, fifteen were seen on 

 the surface. I have it at second hand, that Prof. Ha- 

 gen, of the Museum at Cambridge, states that they are 

 cysts of Psorospermia, the immature, encysted stage of 

 the Gregarinue, and that he has never before known of 

 these entozoa being found in the muscles of birds If 

 these parasites are capable of development in the intes- 

 tinal tract of men, it ought to be known, as from the 

 semi- cooked state in which we eat our ducks, the cysts 

 would be very apt to be ingested without having their 

 vitality destroyed. On the other hand, if as large and as 

 numerous as in the specimen I saw, nobody with their 

 eyes open, could fail to notice the presence of unusual 

 bodies. My object m making this communication is two- 

 told : First, to get any scientific knowledge that vom- 

 niany scientific readers may be able to give on the sub- 

 ject, and second, to find out from the sportsmen whether 

 the presence of these parasites has been previously no- 

 ticed in ducks. So far I have not been able to hear of 

 any similar case. Mip-Mao 



Boston, Feb. 25th. ° JVUC ' 



Through the courtesy of Dr. Hagen we have received 

 the following notes with regard to these parasites, which, 

 will be read with interest by all sportsmen :— 



™- t n , j ™ Cambeidqe > Mass., March 20th. 

 Editor Forest and Stream :— 



The flesh which I have seen from the mallard duck con 

 tamed cysts filled with what is called Psorospermia in an 

 exceedingly large number. So far as I know, such flesh 

 is only disgusting, but not unhealthy. Psorospermia are 

 very common in hani-.perhaps one in ten or even more 

 — but never so large 33 m the duck. 



I received yesterday bear flesh from the niarknj St 

 contained in the cellular tissue next to the v*ms cysts 

 containing thin white worms, four inches Ionic and leis 

 than one-twelfth thick. This is a very interesting para- 

 site, described m 1072 by Fr. Redi, Italy, and since seen 

 by nobody. Rudolph 1 quotes it sa Strongytus ursi and 

 Diermg as Nematoidium, but both only after Redi's de- 



