50 



GEOLOGY. 



CLASS 2.— AVES (Birds). 



It had generally been accepted that the most ancient type of 

 birds known were the great wingless running birds, such as the 

 Ostrich, Rhea, Emeu, Cassowary, and Apteryx, and no doubt these 

 may have a very high antiquity, — especially so, if the bird-like tracks 

 met with in the Triassic sandstone of the Connecticut Valley, in the 

 United States, were made by a feathered biped, — but the oldest fossil 

 bird at present discovered is to be seen in Table-case No. 13, in this 

 Boom, and named Arclueopteryx macrura (Owen). {See Fig. SI.) 

 This remarkable long-tailed bird was obtained from the lithographic 

 stone quarries of Solenhofen in Bavaria, a rock of the Oolitic forma- 

 tion. The stone is so fine-grained that besides the bones of the 

 wings, the furculum, or "merry thought," the pelvis, the legs and the 

 tail, we have actually casts or impressions on the stone (made when it. 

 was as yet only soft mud) of all the feathers of the wings and of the- 

 tail. The leg-bone and foot are similar to that of a modern bird, 

 but the tail is elongated like that of a rat, or of a lizard, with a pair 

 of feathers springing from each joint, a character not to be found 

 in any living bird. Quite recently another example has been ob- 

 tained from the same locality, and is now preserved in the Berlin; 

 Museum. A photograph of this specimen is placed near the original 

 fossil. 



Here is also exhibited a series of bones of another bird named 

 Palceornis Clijtii, from the Wealden formation of Tilgate Forest, and 

 26 casts of bones of Hesperornis regalis, a large bird with teeth, 

 measuring nearly six feet from the extremity of the bill to the end of 

 the toes. In habit it resembled the Loons and Grebes of the present 

 day, but was incapable of flight, and had no visible wings. Its legs 

 and feet were very powerful and admirably adapted for swimming. 

 The teeth of Hesperornis were numerous and implanted in grooves,, 

 but the extremity of the bill seems to have been protected by a horny 

 sheath, as in recent birds. These bird-remains were discovered in 

 ie Middle Cretaceous beds of Kansas, U.S., N. America, by Profes- 

 sor 0. C. Marsh, F.G.S.,by whom the series of casts were presented... 

 The originals are preserved in Yale College Museum, New Haven, 

 Connecticut, United States. 



The next oldest birds whose remains are preserved in this case are 

 from the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey (Lower Eocene). 



One of these, Dasornis londiniensis, represented by a single imper- 

 fect skull, was as large as an Ostrich, and probably closely related to 

 that bird. Another (Argillornis longipennis) rivalled the Albatross in 

 size. A third (Odo?itopteryx toliapicus) had a powerfully serrated 

 bill, well adapted for seizing its fishy prey. 



The list of Eocene Tertiary birds is completed by the remains of 

 Palceortyx Hofmanni, from the Eocene of Montmartre, Paris. 



The remains of Birds are rather more numerous in the Miocene and 



