Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-04-30


Going back through the ages, we
come to the district Of the Paris
basin, a place whore many remains
have been uncovered. These include
owls, a vulture allied to an American
species, a secretary bird now con-
fined to Africa, storks, sand-pipers
and others. Most interesting of all
are the remains of Trogons, birds of
brilliant plumage, now confined to
the tropics of South America, and
allied to other species of Africa and
Asia. Though the many remains OF
birds of the Tertiary era or Eocene
period resemble the species of the
present day we should find if we
knew more about them that they
differed from their present repre-
sentatives in many respects. The
varied company of birds of the pres
ent represent the descendants of a
more varied bird life OF the past,
A more important discovery of
the Eoeene period is that made re-
Gently in Wyoming of a very large
ground bird that goes by the name of
Diatryma, which, from its degree OF
completeness, is really a landmark in
the study of birds. Portions of a
similar bird have been found in New
Mexico, and, from the remains, we
can Judge that it was almost as large
as an ostrich, nearly seven feet high,
heayy-limbed and with a massive
neck, gigantic beak and tiny wings
1t shows many resemblances to the
South American cariama, a primitive
crane-like species Recently, the
Impressions of long, plumy ostrich
like feathers were found in shale in
Colorado, and are believed to repre-
sent this birds plumage. 1t has
many primitive points which show
that it combines the characters of
both the Rattle and Carnite types OF
birds and indicates that the two are
not of independent origin but go
back to this common ancestor, which
lived something more than fifty mil
lion years ago
From the Eocene period we can go
back to the Cretaceous or Secondary
era. Few bones are known from
these ancient deposits, but these few
are of the utmost interest. In adj
dition to sundry bones from the
chalk deposits of England, our own
state Of Kansas, with its shale of the
Cretaceous period, has added largely
to our knowledge, with portions of
two skeletons of birds which lived
over a hundred million
years ago. These birds represented
two distinct types, but for the first
time we find that both had teeth, just
as lizards have. One of these birds
was rather gull like: it's breast bone
had a prominent keel, the wings were
well developed and it had three fin
gers as in modern birds. 1t is called
lchthyomis or fsh-bird. The second
was like a grebe, with a long body
and neck, long narrow bill with the
addition of teeth, and an enormous
knee-cap. 1t was evidently remark
able diver, but was flightless. The
hreastplate has no keel, because of
the small size of the wing. This is
the Hesperomis or western bird
These two furnish us with two salient
facts-birds of the period had not
as yet lost their teeth, and, secondly.
they show that even at that time the
species were so specialized that
some had lost the use of wings.
Going back to even more remote
times is difficult. yet, by a great piece
of luck, we have some skeletons
from the Jurassic period, $50 million
years ago. In the slate beds of Ba-
Varia, two skeletons Of birds were
found so marvellously preserved that
the outlines of their feathers still
remained. These skeletons revealed
the famous Archaeopteryx, or lizard
tailed bird, the oldest feathered
creature yet discovered and true
missing link. This lizard-like bird
was little larger than a maybe: its
beak was blunt and snout-like, with
thirteen simple teeth in the upper
and eight near the tip of the lower
jaw on each side, set in distinct
sockets. 1t had ten neck vertebrae.
less than in any living bird and
therefore resembles the lizard which
has but nine. The breast bone was
apparently keeled, and the foot seems
to be like that of modern perching
birds. Most remarkable of all is the
tail, the central bony part of which
is long, slender, of many Joints as in
lizard but, differing from the liz
ard, each Joint has pair of large
feathers on each side. Surely a re-
markable bird and a certain proof
that the birds of to-day are the di-
rect descendants of the lizard.
Now comes the search for the liz
ards that birds came from, and this
is more complicated. Dinosaurs were
olrd-like in appearance, and certain
VI the smaller ones were especially
So Ihese dinosaurs fiourished in the
oretaceous period, however, so we
must ma some ancestor of theirs.
MOI long ago, an unspecialized TYNE
was discovered, which might well
nave been the starting point for the
olrdilke types. These have Greek
name which means Imitation croco-
dies and their bones have been
round in Triassic formations of 24O
million years ago, so they ante-date