4 
THE GEOLO{J!ST. 
an open doubt that the Archseopteryx might have reptilian affinities, 
and that Bhamphorhynchus — the most bird-like of the Pterodactyles 
— might have had feathers, to preen which might have been one of 
the offices of a horny beak projecting beyond the few isolated teeth 
set near the fork of the jaws. Neither of these surmises are tenable. 
The Khamphorhynchus had long strong teeth — unless we are mis- 
taken in our interpretation of the excellent example acquired with 
other remarkable fossils besides the Archaeopteryx in the Haberlein 
coUection — down to the very end of the albatross-like bill or jaws (fig.l, 
p. 3) ; while no traces of feathers have ever been met with associated 
with any of the numerous debris of those reptiles. As to the Ar- 
chaeopteryx, we are not aware that the inference originally arrived at 
by Professor Owen and Mr. "VVaterhouse, that it was a true bird, has 
been successfully impugned in any way. Those palaeontologists who 
were silently present at the Koyal Society's meeting, or who were 
*• conspicuous by their absence," whose opinions we should have been 
glad to know, have maintained a significant silence. And the prac- 
tice of naturalists in this respect seems nowadays like the practice of 
superior officers in Government establishments, — to find fault when- 
ever they can, but never to give any praise. 
It is most instructive to find in this fossil that more generalized 
type of structure presented by extinct birds of the Mesozoic age. 
The birds whose remains have been found in the Triassic, or as 
modern American geologists suggest, Liassic or Oolitic, sandstones of 
Connecticut, belong to the Cursorial type. These birds have been 
placed " at the lowest step of the scale of ornithic organizati(m." In 
the abrogation or non-development of the wings, and in the number 
and direction of the toes, whose impressions have been afibrded to us, 
we have evidence of a less amount of ornithic specialization in them, 
and a larger retention of the original vertebrate characters. In the 
Archasopteryx, the oldest bird of which osseous remains have as yet 
been found, we have also the retention of the more generalized type, 
but in another direction. The wings are indeed functional and capa- 
ble of flight ; the shape of the pectoral ridge on the humerus, and of 
the furculum, prove this ; and the hinder extremities are modified 
for perching. 
But in the twenty caudal vertebrae, we see the persistence of the 
law of generalization. In all embryo birds the caudal vertebrae are 
distinct : as life progresses, anchylosis goes on and they become 
shortened and united together. The eighteen vertebrae in the young 
