. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . howingthat it was a diver and swimmer. The tail was shorterthan in the long-tailed archaeopterix, and the jaws werearmed with sharp teeth set in sockets. These strange creatures preyed upon thecountless fishes in the shallowseas, whose remains are alsopreserved, and were amongthe most remarkable forms ofa literal age of wonders. Theostrich is considered a giantbird to-day, but it is a dwarfin comparison with some ofthe strange birds of the Eocene of Paris hasbeen found a bird called gas-tornis, which attained a heightof ten feet, its
. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . howingthat it was a diver and swimmer. The tail was shorterthan in the long-tailed archaeopterix, and the jaws werearmed with sharp teeth set in sockets. These strange creatures preyed upon thecountless fishes in the shallowseas, whose remains are alsopreserved, and were amongthe most remarkable forms ofa literal age of wonders. Theostrich is considered a giantbird to-day, but it is a dwarfin comparison with some ofthe strange birds of the Eocene of Paris hasbeen found a bird called gas-tornis, which attained a heightof ten feet, its colossal sizebeing well shown when com-pared with that of a man(Fig. 106). It was a link be-tween the waders and theostriches. The largest andheaviest of the birds havebeen found in New Zealand and are supposed to havelived with the early human beings of that country ofstrange inhabitants. The bones of the moa, as the birdis called, have been found beneath old camps, showingthat they had been charred, and it is mentioned in thenative Fig. 106.—Restoration of Gas-tornis eduardsii. (After Meu-nier.) ANCIENT BIRDS 141 The remains of the moa(Fig. 107) were found in whatis known as the Quaternaryperiod, and their discovery-created great excitement inthe world of bird lovers. The very first accounts ofthe birds were related bythe natives, and finally, inclearing out an ancient swamp,some bones were found whichproved that feathered giants
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1906
