The Crested Screamer, 
223 
between birds and reptiles belonging to the Upper 
Jurassic period. 
The screamer’s right to dwell with the geese has 
not been left unchallenged. The late Professor 
Garrod finds that from considerations of pterylosis, 
visceral anatomy, myology, and osteology the 
screamer cannot be placed along with the Anserine 
birds.” He finds that in some points it resembles 
the ostrich and rhea, and concludes : “It seems 
therefore to me that, summing these results, the 
screamer must have sprung from the primary avian 
stock as an independent offshoot at much the same 
time as did most of the other important families.” 
This time, he further tells us, was when there 
occurred a general break-up of the ancient terres- 
trial bird-type, when the acquisition of wings 
brought many intruders into domains already 
occupied, calling forth a new struggle for exist- 
ence, and bringing out many special qualities by 
means of natural selection. 
With this archseological question I have little to 
do, and only quote the above great authorities to 
show that the screamer appears to be nearly the 
last descendant of an exceedingly ancient family, 
with little or no relationship to other existing 
families, and that its pedigree has been hopelessly 
lost in the night of an incalculable antiquity. I have 
only to speak of the bird as a part of the visible 
world and as it appears to the non- scientific lover 
of nature ; for, curiously enough, while anatomists 
have been laboriously seeking for the screamer’s 
affinities in that “ biological field wdiich is as wide 
as the earth and deep as the sea,” travellers and 
