File:The Audubon magazine (1888) (14564251708).jpg

Identifier: audubonmagazine02nati (find matches)
Title: The Audubon magazine
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: National Audubon Society
Subjects: Birds -- Periodicals Birds -- Conservation Periodicals
Publisher: (New York, N.Y. : Forest and Stream Publishing Co.)
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ng after his dinner like a dart and makingthings lively among the smaller fishes, theIcthyornis sailed overhead on tireless wing,pouncingdown oc-casionallyon anylittle fishthat ven-tured near the sur-face. The Icthyor-nis was compara-tively a small bird.Two species havebeen discovered,one about the sizeof a plover, and theother nearly the sizeof an ibis or curlew.These birds hadquite slender legs,like most of theshore birds andwaders nowadays,and long powerfulwings, and of coursethey had a keel onthe breastbone, asthat is necessary forthe powerful mus- ^.^^^scles which keep the ^- ^_^_ ^wings ni motion. ^^i0i^^^^m^0Sff They had sharp ^^^^-^^sfe^^^ teeth which curvedback a little towardthe throat, so that a fish had not muchchance of breaking loose after the jawsonce snapped on him, but although theIcthyornis had the marks of humble originin its backbone, it had quite an aristocraticset of teeth, for each tooth was firmly setin its own socket. A still more remarkable fossil bird called
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SKELETON OF ICHTHYORNIS RESTORED the Archicoptcryx has been discovered inEurope in a little earlier page of the earthshistory. First the impression of a featherwas found in the rock, recording as plainlyas possible that the bird was there when therock was soft mud. After a while a verycomplete specimen was discovered, andwonderful to tell,it had a long taillike a lizard, andthe feathers grow-ing on either sideof it. T\\&Archcc-opteryx was a landbird and had feetlike a perchingbird, and the bodywas covered withtrue feathers, butin other respectsit was more like aizard with itsong tail andtoothed jaws.The wings werenot very long,and it is possi-ble that it couldnot fly upward,but only like theflying squirrels ona downward in-cline, and as thefingers of itswings were freefrom each otherand armed withsharp claws, itmust have beena good climber. And so we must admitthat whatever may be thought of Darwinstheory of evolution, there is at any rate nota great dividing line which separates

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