OLIGOCENE PERIOD 
Some forms half Pig, half Monkey looks display, 
Has Nature in these creatures lost her way ? 
But Lemur forms are here with teeth that bind 150 
Them closer with the forms to-day we find. 
And some indeed have skulls that seem to bode 
That they to Apes have started on the road. 
As though in sorrow for the great decline 
Of their long prosperous and exalted line, 155 
Here croak some frogs. Indeed the amphibian throng, 
That once stood first Life's companies among, 
May well bewail " the battle to the strong." 
The birds, that now about Europa fly, 
More signs have lost of Reptile ancestry ; r 60 
And more like birds they are to-day we see, 
Than seem the beasts to their posterity. 
Cormorants, gulls, and gannets haunt the coasts, 
And plump they wax upon the finny hosts. 
Birds leggy, long-necked, like Flamingoes, wade 165 
About the shallows. Spoonbill forms have made 
Homes in the marshes : lanky Stork-forms seek 
Their varied food through swamp, lagoon, and creek. 
The Eagle fierce here cleaves his aerial way, 
Bearing to craggy haunts his living prey. 170 
The Falcon's eye too looks upon the scene ; 
And Osprey forms, and Buzzard fishers keen 
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