. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology: an outline of the structure and classification of birds; and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . graphy in tbe Jurassic period,engraved by ArchcBopteryx lithographica. From the originalslab in the British Museum; after A. Newton, Ewy. BHt. Geologic Succession of Birds.— Birds
. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology: an outline of the structure and classification of birds; and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . graphy in tbe Jurassic period,engraved by ArchcBopteryx lithographica. From the originalslab in the British Museum; after A. Newton, Ewy. BHt. Geologic Succession of Birds.— Birds have been ti-tced back in geologictime to Cretaceous and Jurassic epocli^of the Mesozoic or Mid-Life period ofthe worlds history. The earliest ornith ■ DEFINITION OF BIRDS. 63 iclmites,—t\ie fossUs so called because supposed to indicate the presence of Birds by theirf(,ot-prints, were discovered about the year 1835 in the Triassic formation in the cxeatures which made these tracks are now reasonably believed to have been aUDinosaurian Reptiles. The oldest ornitholite, or fossil certainly known to be that of a trueBird, is the famous ArchcBopteryx, found by Andreas Wagner in 1861 in the Oohtic slate ofSolenhofen in Bavaria. This has a long lizard-like tail of twenty vertebrje, from each of whichsprings a weU-developed featlier on each side ; feathers of tlie wings are also weU preserved;. Fig. 15.—Restoration ot Hesperornis regalis. After Marsh. bones of the hand are not fused together, as they are in recent Birds ; and the jaws bear trueteeth. This Bird has served as the basis of one of the primary divisions of the class Avefs:though it has many reptilian characters, it is a true Bird. The great gap between this ancientAvian and latter-day birds has been to some extent bridged by Marshs discovery and splendidrestoration of Birds from the Cretaceous formations of North America, such genera asIchthyornis and Hesperornis forming types of two other primary d
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
