FEATHERED FORMS OF OTHER DAYS. 
355 
patient study of Nature, 
and all that she offers us. 
In examination of my res- 
toration of Archceopteryx 
I trust the reader will find 
that I have paid due at- 
tention to all those details 
of external structure that 
go to make up our pres- 
ent knowledge of this an- 
cient bird. The head is 
in a stage of avi-reptilian 
transition ; the teeth are 
in the jaws, and the set- 
ting of the eye is that of a 
lizard; the body is naked, for 
had there been feathers the delicate 
bed of its matrix would certainly have 
taken their impression, as it did that of 
the down on the legs; the tail, consisting 
of joints that undoubtedly had more or less 
movement one upon the other, is drawn with 
its double row of tail-feathers ; and so on for 
all the other characters given us by the most 
prominent writers upon this subject. When 
Dr. Coues first saw my restoration, he pro- 
claimed it, in his usual kindly way, “ a very 
warm reach of the imagination”; and I am 
well aware of the audacity of the step, but 
I still trust that my Archceopteryx, consid- 
ering all the pains bestowed upon it, conveys 
a fair idea of the form of this ancient ancestor 
of our birds. 
From Archceopteryx we pass once more to 
the generous slates of Solen'nofen, to find one 
more unique and sole existing example of 
what must have been a lizard-like bird, or 
perhaps, speaking more strictly in this case, a 
bird-like lizard ; this is Compsognathus. This 
form is often alluded to throughout the liter- 
ature that has to do with early extinct bird- 
like animals. The writer has never had the 
opportunity to examine this specimen ; but 
Professor Huxley tells us that “ it has a 
light, bird-like head (provided with numerous 
teeth), a very long neck, small anterior limbs, 
and very long posterior limbs.” Now all 
through the mesozoic rocks, the strata of 
Triassic age, the Jurassic into the cretaceous 
beds, we find in different parts of the globe 
many, many forms that have now been 
arranged into groups, that show in their skel- 
etons every imaginable shade in point of 
structure and distinctive character between 
reptile and bird. Some were of large size ; 
others of mastodontic proportions; yet others 
were small ; undoubtedly some were covered 
with feathers in their different stages of devel- 
opment ; some had their beaks sheathed in 
horn, while their bodies were stamped with all 
the characters of the reptile ; others had teeth ; 
RESTORATION OK ARCHAEOPTERYX. ]}Y R. \V. SHUFELDT. 
a few could fly ; some lived on the land, some 
in the sea, while others were amphibious. 
Is it a wonder, then, that we find such 
a masterpiece in classification as Professor 
Huxley has given us in the past few years? 
This profound zoologist and philosopher swept 
away all our old landmarks, that for years 
had held a cordon about the class birds, and 
allowed them to take their proper place in 
the grand scheme of nature. This was effected 
by making one province, the Sauropsida, which 
is divided into the two classes, reptiles and 
birds; then these diversified forms gradually 
dropped into their proper orders and genera. 
Leaving the Jurassic formation, wherein 
