Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. 



neck, the beak-jaws of a bird, the long 

 arms and membranous win^s of a bat, 

 and some reptilian characters. Sometimes 

 they had a short tail, again it was a long 

 tail with a vertical membranous at the end to 

 use as a rudder. These horrid monsters 

 varied in length, from tip to tip of wing, 

 from two or three feet to eighteen or twenty 

 feet. 



In Bavaria there is a kind of limestone 

 used for lithographs. Tn that stone, which 

 also preserves fossils in a wonderful manner, 

 the remains of the oldest known bird were 

 found. The first specimen was represented 

 by a single feather, and to it the name 

 ''^Archceopteryx,^^ or Ancient feather, was 

 given by Yon Meyer. A few months later, 

 in 1802, a complete specimen was found. 

 That it was the same species that wore the 

 feather is yet a problem, but we are justified 

 to believe it to be the same. The feathers 

 of the wing and tail were preserved in a 

 wonderful manner. It was a true bird but 

 vastly different from what we now know. 

 Instead of the tail as we now observe, it 

 had a tail of twenty-one joints, of reptilian 

 character, and a pair of feathers at each 

 joint. It had teeth in sockets ; and instead 

 of the hand being combined with the wing, 

 two of the lingers were free and armed with 

 claws. In 1873, another fine specimen was 

 found and deposited in the Berlin museum. 

 Birds and reptiles, so far apart now, seem 

 to have been nearly alike in the middle of 

 the Mesozoic era. The first Bavarian bird 

 stood alone till 1870, without anything to 

 connect it with living forms. In that year 

 Prof. O. C. Marsh began a series of dis- 

 coveries in the cretaceous strata of western 

 Kansas and Colorado, which largely filled 

 the gap. He has described about twenty 

 species of cretaceous birds. Half of them 

 were water birds, like rails, divers, cor- 

 morants, but of different genera. The 

 other half were toothed birds, different from 

 anything we now know. These toothed 

 birds were of two types. One, the 

 Ilesperornis, as a representative, were 

 flightless swimmers and divers, of great 

 size, five or six feet from tip to tip of 

 skeleton, about three feet high in standing 

 position, and with only rudimentary wings. 

 The other type, the Icfithyornis^ were 

 smaller birds but powerful fliers. The 



species indicates a bird a little smaller than 

 our Crow. The Hesperornis had teeth in 

 grooves. The teeth of the IcJitJiyornis 

 were in separate sockets. The stout 



maxillary bones of these early birds were 

 armed as now unknown in bird-life. In 

 the deep continuous grooves in which the 

 Hesperornis^ teeth were set, there was but 

 the faintest indication of separate sockets. 

 The teeth were held in place by cartilages 

 which permitted some lateral movement. 

 They had pointed crowns covered with 

 smooth enamel and mounted on strong 

 roots. They were curved backward slightly, 

 and were so reptilian in character that any 

 anatomist would refer them to reptiles, did 

 he find them alone. The brain of the 

 Hesperornis was quite small and very 

 reptilian. It was less than one-third the 

 relative capacity of the Loon, a bird similar 

 in habits. The sternum had no keel.^ 

 The wings were represented by the humerus 

 alone, and that was rudimentary, as already 

 indicated. The ribs had no features differ- 

 ent from modern birds. The tail was ap- 

 parently composed of twelve vertebrae — 

 all of which have been well preserved, ex- 

 cept the tip. The last six or seven vertebrae 

 were so interlocked that they had but slight 

 movement. The feet and legs were admir- 

 ably adapted to life in the water, and it is 

 probable that the Hesperornis was more 

 completely at home in the water than any 

 bird known. The legs had a powerful 

 backward stroke, and a quick return-motion. 

 The feet and legs resemble the genus 

 Podiceps more than any bird now living. 



In the Grebes the outer toe is the longest, 

 while the middle one is nearly the same 

 length. In the Hesperornis the outer toe 

 is three or four times as strong as the mid- 

 dle toe, or stronger than all the others 

 combined. In its more important charac- 

 ters the skull resembled that of the ostrich. 



The skull of Ichthyornis dispar, a 

 representative species, was very large in 

 comparison with the rest of the skeleton, 

 but the brain was very small and strongly 

 reptilian. The bones of the jaw — the 

 rami — were separate, and united at the end 

 only by a cartilage. The teeth were 

 planted in distinct sockets. They were 

 sharp, pointed and strongly recurved. The 

 crowns were coated with enamel and the 



