REESE LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

APR 20 1893

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Accessions No. <5~/ I if^J . -.Class No.

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LIBRARY

PHASES OF ANIMAL LIFE.

BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

PHASES OF ANIMAL LIFE

PAST AND PEESENT.

BY R. LYDEKKER, B.A. (CANTAB.)

LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST 16th STREET.
1892.

All rights reserved.

BIOLOGY

LIBRARY

G

PREFACE.

THE following Essays are, by the kind permission of
the Editor, reproduced from KNOWLEDGE, with some
emendations, and a few additional illustrations.

They are intended to illustrate in a popular manner
a few of the various modes in which animals — espe-
cially vertebrates — are adapted to similar conditions
of existence ; and also to demonstrate some of the
more remarkable types of structure obtaining among
the higher vertebrates. It will be found that while
some of the Essays form a continuous series, others
are totally unconnected with those to which they
stand in juxtaposition. While living forms are by no
means neglected, especial attention is concentrated on
the less known, strange, and often gigantic creatures
which have now passed away for ever, and are re-
vealed to us— it may be but obscurely — only by their
dry bones.

The series has, the author flatters himself, met with
a favourable reception in its original form ; and he
trusts that it may obtain at least equal approval in
its present guise.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS . . . • . . i ., I

II. FLYING ANIMALS . . . . . . . jg

III. SWIMMING ANIMALS .' . . . . . . 39

IV. PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS . . . . . ' » .66
V. FISH-LIZARDS, OR SHORT-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS . . 77

VI. PLKSIOSAURS, OR LONG-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS . . 89

VII. TORTOISES AND TURTLES • 99

VIII. GIANT LAND REPTILES, OR DINOSAURS, . . .112

IX. FLYING DRAGONS, OR PTERODACTYLES ... . 138

X. GIANT BIRDS . ... . . . . 147

XI. EGG-LAYING MAMMALS, OR MONOTREMES . . . 159

XII. POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS. . ' . 173

XIII. DOGS AND BEARS . . . , . . . l86^

XIV. TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS . . . . 198
XV. HORNS AND ANTLERS 226

XVI. RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES 236

PHASES OF ANIMAL LIFE,
PAST AND PRESENT.

CHAPTEE I.

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS.

AMONG civilised nations throughout the world the
practice of protecting their fighting-men by coats of
mail, which prevailed so extensively during the middle
ages, has been entirely abandoned; the cuirass of
the English Household Cavalry and of the French
Cuirassiers being a survival, or, as naturalists would
say, a rudiment, of the complete coat-of-mail, which
is retained more on account of the smartness which
it adds to the equipment than for any practical use
as a protection. The use of armour as a protection
has, indeed, been transferred from men's bodies to
the sides of ships of battle ; and even there it appears
problematical whether the ever-increasing weight of
the armour which is necessary to keep pace with the
development in the size and speed of the missiles
employed against it will not eventually become so

burdensome as to lead to its abandonment.

A

2 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

In the case of the coats-of-mail of the mediaeval
warriors a gradual process of evolution had, indeed,
brought them to a marvellous pitch of perfection at
the time when they were once for all abandoned;
and the beauty of the suits of chain- and plate-armour,
both as works of art and as admirable adaptations
for their particular purpose, must at once strike all
who visit a gallery of ancient armour.

If we now direct our attention to the animal, as
distinct from the human, world, and confine our survey
to that portion of it which includes the back-boned,
or, as naturalists term them, the vertebrate animals,
we shall find in the early periods of the earth's history
a great tendency in many groups to the development
of a coat-of-mail, fully as beautiful, and frequently
much more efficient than that of the knights of old.
We shall find, moreover, that, on the whole vertebrate
animals have, so to speak, come to the conclusion that
a coat-of-mail is not altogether an advantage, more
especially among the higher forms, in the struggle for
existence; and that a better protection is to be found
in the swiftness of limbs for flight, or in the length of
tusks and talons for attack. Still, however, there are
certain groups of animals which have preserved the
old-fashioned plan of living and fighting the battle of
life in armour, although even some of these seem to
be in two minds as to whether, after all, the plan
of facing the world with unprotected bodies is not
really the best. ,

In drawing a parallel between human and animal

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 3

armour we must, however, always recollect that the
animal has this inestimable advantage over man, that
his armour is grown upon his own body, and is in fact
part and parcel of himself, instead of having to be put
on and off. Again, whereas the chief types of human
armour may be summarised under the three forms of
chain- scale- and plate-armour, we find a much greater
variety prevailing in the coats-of-mail of animals.
And here we would impress upon the reader how
much knowledge he would gain of these wonderful,
and frequently very beautiful, structures if he were to
visit the Natural History Museum at South Kensing-
ton, and inspect the admirable collection of different
types of these and other marvellous animal structures
arranged in the cases placed in the bays on the left
side of the great central hall.

Our brief survey of some of the more important
types of animal armour will be best understood if we
take the various groups in their natural sequence of
rank and their succession in geological time, com-
mencing with the lower and earlier forms. Our first
glance will then be directed towards the great class
of fishes, of which some of the earliest examples
occur in the Old Eed Sandstone rocks of Scotland,
laid down in, lakes and rivers ages before those forests
flourished, the wood and foliage of which we now burn
in our fires as coal. Strange and uncouth indeed
must have been many of these old fishes, whose bodies
were encased in a complete coat of plate-armour un-
like that found in any living forms, and consisting

4 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of larger or smaller shield-like bones closely united
together at their edges. The head, too, in some of
these fishes (Fig. 1) was most remarkable, and looked
something like a flattened and expanded ploughshare.
It has, indeed, been suggested that the reason why
these earliest fishes possessed such an extraordinary
strong coat-of-mail is that the waters of the primeval
epochs were hot from contact with the still heated
globe, and were also impregnated with strong acids or
salts; but against this it may be urged that it does
not appear that it would be any advantage to be par-
boiled in a coat-of-mail rather than in an ordinary

FIG. 1.- An Armoured Fish (Cephalaspis) of the Old Red Sandstone.

skin. Somewhat later in the world's history, that is
to say, at and about the period when our coal was
formed, fishes with an armour of a different type were
very abundant ; many of the same groups also occur-
ring in the Old Eed Sandstone. In these Ganoid
fishes, as they are scientifically termed, the body
(Fig. 2) was often covered with a coat of lozenge-
shaped scales, formed of solid bone, and faced with
a hard coating of shining and polished enamel. These
scales did not, as in most fishes of the present day,
overlap one another like the slates on a roof, but were
joined together at their edges, — frequently with the

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS.

5

aid of a peg from one scale received into a socket in
the adjacent one. Fishes with this form of plate-
armour flourished not only in the
Coal period, but were also abun-
dant at that later date when the
blue Lias clays and limestones
now forming the cliffs of Whitby
and Lyme-Kegis were laid down
on the old sea-bottom. After
that, however, this type of armour
seems to have gradually gone out
of fashion, and the only fish in
which it now remains is the Gar-
pike of the American rivers, which
may thus be regarded as a kind
of mediaeval knight. The Stur-
geons, known to many of us chiefly
or entirely through that Epicurean
luxury caviare, present us with
another type of armour, which is
probably also a survival from
long past days. In these gigantic
fresh-water fishes the body is pro-
tected by several longitudinal rows
of large diamond - shaped bony
plates, which are not connected
with one another. Whether, how-
ever, this modification of plate-
armour is derived from a complete suit, and is thus
somewhat analogous to the Life- Guardsman's cuirass,

6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

or whether it was always of the same type as at
present, is one of those questions which does not yet
admit of a decisive answer. In contrast to the Ganoid
fishes, where we see a gradual dying out of the old
mail-clad types, we may notice the case of the Sharks
and Eays. These fishes seem to have taken a moderate
course in regard to armour, avoiding on the one hand
the plate-armour of the Ganoids, and on the other the
light scale-armour of the fishes of the present day. In
most of these fishes the skin is studded with very
small bony granules, and thus has a rough file-like
structure, being commonly known under the name of
shagreen. These fishes, be it noted, while among the
earliest known forms, are still extremely abundant,
and thus present a striking instance of the advantage
of a middle course in the struggle for existence.

By far the great majority of the fishes of the present
day belong, however, to a group which seems to have
made its appearance shortly before our Chalk was
deposited, and is now the dominant one. These
modern fishes have succeeded in entirely getting rid
of the plate-armour of the Ganoids, for which they
have substituted a much lighter scale-armour formed
of the well-known overlapping horny scales which
give the silvery lustre we admire so much in the
roach and salmon. The same type of armour also
obtains in the curious Baramunda of Queensland
(Fig. 3), which belongs to an older group. Whereas,
however, the majority of the fishes of the present day
have adopted this light scale-armour in place of the

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 7

old-fashioned plate-armour, a few have struck out a
new line in the development of a different type of
bony coat-of-mail. Thus the Coffer- and File-fishes
of the tropical seas have a protective coat of bony
plate-armour with a sculptured outer surface, so locked
together as to form a box-like structure investing the
entire body. Again, among the fresh-water Cat-fishes
there is one genus in which the body is covered with
a cuirass of overlapping plates formed of solid bone.
Perhaps, however, the most peculiar kind of armour in

FIG. 3.— The Baramunda of Queensland, showing overlapping scale-armour.

the entire class is found among some of the well-known
Globe-fishes, which are likewise so remarkable for
their habit of inflating their bodies into a balloon-like
shape. In these fishes, as is shown by a preparation
in one of the cases already alluded to in the Natural
History Museum, the body is protected by a coating
of long spines, each of which may be as much as two
inches in length, and is inserted in the skin by a flat
and expanded plate of bone.

As a whole, then, in spite of the exceptions last
mentioned, which according to the time-honoured
phrase only serve to prove the rule, fishes appear to
have come to the same conclusion as the more ad-
vanced divisions of the human race, that a massive

8 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

armour for the protection of the body is an encum-
brance rather than an advantage as a means of pro-
tection against attack.

The same story is told still more clearly in that
group of animals now represented by the frogs, newts,
and their allies, which are popularly reckoned among
Eeptiles, but which naturalists, with that tendency to
multiply terms for which they are so celebrated, dis-
tinguish as Amphibians. Thus during, and for some
time after, that distant epoch to which we have already
referred, when the coal-forests waved over what is
now Britain, there lived a number of salamander-like
creatures, termed, from the complicated internal fold-
ings found in the teeth of many of them, Labyrinth-
odonts.* In these creatures the under surface of
the chest was protected by three large bony plates ;
while in some cases an armour of scale-like bones
covered the rest of the body. All the existing frogs,
salamanders, and such-like creatures have, however,
totally dispensed with the panoply of their fore-
fathers; and have, as we all know, a soft and naked
skin.

The true Eeptiles, in which the naturalist includes
crocodiles, lizards, snakes, tortoises, and turtles, as well
as a host of extinct forms, appear, speaking meta-
phorically, to have held divided opinions as to whether
a bony coat-of-mail was or was not a thing to be re-
tained as a permanency ; since, while some extinct and
early groups never had any armour at all, others have

* See Chapter IV.

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 9

continued this protective covering in great perfection
to the present day. Eeptiles are, moreover, remarkable
for the great variety of the kinds of armour which
they have displayed in the course of a long career.

The Crocodiles offer the best living examples of
reptiles with a plate-armour, recalling that of some
fishes. In these fierce creatures, the back and upper
surface of the tail are covered with a number of oblong
bony plates buried in the skin and covered by horny
shields. In the true crocodiles (which in India so
many people will insist on misnaming alligators), this
armour is confined to the upper surface of the body;
but in some, although not in all, alligators, there was
also a similar armour upon the lower surface. Since,
moreover, most of the earlier fossil types had an
armour upon both aspects of the body, it seems that
crocodiles have, on the whole, found it advantageous
to get rid of the lower buckler, so that to a certain
extent they seem to have followed the general rule.
It is, however, very curious to find that there were
some fossil crocodiles which had totally discarded
their armour ; and since these have altogether dis-
appeared, it would seem that this radical change did
not answer in this particular instance.

As first cousins of the crocodiles, we may briefly
note those fossil reptiles to which, from the gigantic
size of some of them, the name of Dinosaurs,* has been
applied. Some of these huge creatures, which far ex-
ceeded the elephant in bulk, had a bony armour which

* See Chapter VIII.

10 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

formed a solid cuirass over part of the back and loins ;
while in many cases the bony plates which covered the
body were developed into huge spines of more than a
foot in length ; and in others the back and tail were
armed with a row of large plates set edge- ways along
the back-bone, and extending from the head to the tip
of the tail, as shown in Fig. 39.

The Lizards and Snakes, which we may regard as
advanced and highly specialised reptiles, having but
little kinship with the old-fashioned Crocodiles and
Dinosaurs, have, as a rule, discarded the plate-armour
of the latter, and acquired instead a light scale-armour
of overlapping horny scales, which in many of them
are beautifully marked. The snakes, indeed, never
have any trace of the bony plate-armour, which would,
of course, interfere with their lithe motions; but in
some lizards, small rudimentary bony plates are found
in the skin underlying the scales, to tell the tale of
their old alliance.

Perhaps, however, the most original idea in the way
of a coat-of-mail is found in the Tortoises and Turtles.*
In these reptiles, the ribs and back-bone of the skeleton
have taken part with bony plates, analogous to those
of the crocodiles, to form a solid armour which in the
land-tortoises (Fig. 4) is welded together into a com-
plete box, from which the creature can only protrude
its head, tail, and limbs. This remarkable and unique
arrangement has entailed the further curious modifica-
tion that the shoulder-blade and haunch-bones are

* See Chapter VII.

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS.

ii

placed inside the ribs, instead of externally to them, as
in all other living animals. This type of armour, which
we may term box-armour, seems to have been a success,
since tortoises and turtles are, in certain parts of the

FIG. 4.— Upper surface of the carapace of a Tortoise.

world, among the commonest of reptiles. In some of
those types which are dwellers in water, such as the
well-known soft tortoises, or mud terrapins, so abun-
dant in the Nile and other tropical and subtropical
rivers, the breast-plate and the back-plate of the

12 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

armour are, however, quite separate from one another,
this arrangement being probably more conducive to
freedom of action in swimming.

The great class of Birds, which Professor Huxley
calls only highly modified reptiles, are remarkable in
that there is no trace of a coat-of-mail in any single
species. And when we come to consider the life which
these creatures lead, we at once see the absence of any
need for such a protection. Thus it is quite clear that
in ordinary birds, which are gifted with the power of
flight, a bony armour would not only be perfectly un-
necessary as a protection, but would also seriously im-
pede, if indeed it did not totally prevent, their flight.
On the other hand, in the flightless birds, like the
ostriches and their allies, or the kiwis of New Zealand,
sufficient protection is afforded either by their size and
strength, or by their nocturnal habits. There are,
indeed, certain flightless species, like the extinct dodo
of Mauritius, which have neither strength nor speed,
nor are of nocturnal habits. Their want of the power
of flight is, however, an acquired loss, due to their
dwelling in islands in which they are, or were, free
from the persecution of enemies, and thus needing no
special protection of any kind.

Leaving the birds, we have to complete our survey
of the various types of armour obtaining among verte-
brate animals by a glance at that class which includes
the highest of all vertebrates, and indeed of all animals.
Unfortunately we are still in want of a good popular
name for this class, which includes man himself. In

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 13

common parlance these animals are, indeed, very
generally termed quadrupeds ; but this name is objec-
tionable, in that it is equally applicable to many rep-
tiles, and also since it can scarcely be applied to whales,
which, as is well known, belong to the same class as
man. The term Mammals is, however, becoming some-
what popularised in the sense of the older term quadru-
peds, and, since it is in every way an excellent one, we
shall take leave to employ it. Now, with the exception
of one peculiar group or order, all mammals agree with
birds in being conspicuous for the absence of a bony
bodily armour ; and since they have not the peculiar
means of protection possessed by so many of the latter
class, they afford striking examples of our thesis that
as animals have progressed in organisation they have
discarded protection by plates of bone, to find a better
one in the strength or speed of their limbs, or in
the sharpness of their teeth and talons.

The solitary group of mammals which has sought
protection in a coat-of-mail is the one which comprises
the sloths, ant-eaters, and armadillos. Only a few,
however, of these creatures have thus protected them-
selves ; while some, like the sloths, have sought refuge
in an arboreal life ; and others again, like the ant-eaters,
have found protection by burrowing in the ground.
These mammals, which are scientifically known as the
Edentates, are all 6f a very low type of organisation,
and widely different from all other members of the
class. It is, however; noteworthy that low as they
undoubtedly are, yet that they exhibit no signs of

I4 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

relationship with the lowest of the mammal class, such
as the Australian duck-mole.* Since, moreover, the
duck- mole and its allies have no coat-of-mail, it is
further evident that the Edentates have not inherited
their armour from lower forms, but that they have
evolved it themselves de now.

The Edentates, which are chiefly characteristic of
South America, having however, so to speak, once

FIG. 5.— The three-banded Armadillo.

made up their minds that armour is the right thing,
have gone in for it with a will, with the result that
they show some of the finest specimens of plate-armour
to be found in the whole animal kingdom. In the
comparatively small Armadillos (Fig. 5), which are the
best known examples of the armoured Edentates, the
whole of the body, with the exception of the under

* See Chapter XI.

MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 15

surface, is protected by a very strong bony armour,
which is often elegantly sculptured. Thus their
shoulders are encased in one solid shield, and their
loins in another, the two shields being connected by a
larger or smaller series of movable transverse bands,
which permits the creature to roll itself up into a ball
after the manner of a hedgehog, and thus present a

FIG. 6.— A Glyptodont, showing the carapace. A, View of entire animal.
B, Front end of carapace, c, Back view of same. D and E, Upper and under
side of skull. F, Section of tail showing vertebrae inside the bony sheath.

sphere of plate-armour to an enemy. Still more won-
derful, however, is the armour of the extinct Glypto-
donts (Fig. 6), whose shield formed a single massive
carapace, which may be as much as five feet in length,
with a thickness of more than an inch of solid bone.
These creatures could not, of course, roll themselves

1 6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

up, and they accordingly had their tails protected by a
coating of bony rings closely articulated together, or

by a number of plates of
various sizes, as in Fig. 7.
Moreover, some of them had
a breast-plate on the under
surface of the body, of
which it is not very easy
to see the necessity, since
this aspect would not be
exposed to attack. The

FIG. 7.— End of sheath of tail of a nunre carapaces of these
Glyptodont, much reduced.

Glyptodonts are often found

on the Pampas, where they are said to be used as
shelters by the natives. One would have thought
that with such an armour the breed of Glyptodonts
would at least have lived as long as the puny arma-
dillos ; but their extinction in long past epochs repeats
the lesson that the race is not always to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong.

Finally, as a last and very original type of mailed
animals, we must mention the scaly ant-eaters, or Pan-
golins (Fig. 8), of Africa and Asia, which (pursuing our
metaphor) appear to have come to the conclusion that
a bony-plate armour is much too heavy for such warm
climates, and have, therefore, adopted a light and
elegant scale-armour composed of overlapping brown,
horny scales, causing them to look much like an
elongated cone of a spruce-fir endued with life. Even,
however, this lighter and last type of armour does not

MAlL-CLAD ANIMALS. i;

appear to have been altogether a success in life's battle,
since pangolins are comparatively scarce animals, few
in species, and dragging on what seems to us a some-
what dull existence by the aid of nocturnal and
burrowing habits.

TIG. 8.— The Pangolin. (After Tennent.)^

CHAPTEK II.
FLYING ANIMALS.

ONLY in certain members of two great groups of
animals do we meet with the faculty of flight, or the
power of supporting their bodies in the air for longer
or shorter periods by the aid of membranous or other
expansions developed therefrom. These two groups
are the Insects, constituting a class of the larger
group known as the Arthropodous sub-kingdom, in
which are also included spiders and crabs ; and the
Vertebrates, which form a sub-kingdom to themselves.
Whereas, however, by far the great majority of Insects
are endued with this faculty, among the Vertebrates
it is only in the class of Birds that we meet with a
similar preponderance of species which enjoy this kind
of locomotion, although all the members of certain
orders — the Pterodactyles and Bats — are similarly
endowed. Moreover, we have to draw a distinction
between true flight, as exemplified by Birds, Bats, and
Insects, and what we may call spurious flight, of which
we have examples in Flying Phalangers, Flying
Squirrels, and Flying Fish. True flight is performed
by an alternate upward and downward motion of the
wings, or special organs of flight, and can be indefi-

18

FLYING ANIMALS. 19

nitely prolonged until the muscular powers of the flyer
are exhausted. On the other hand, spurious flight is
merely a prolongation of a downward or upward leap
by means of parachute-like expansions developed on
the sides of the body, or, as in the Flying Fish, by
passive extension of wing-like organs, and it can never
be extended beyond the limits of the initial velocity
of the original leap. This distinction between true
and spurious flight is a very important one, since it
shows us that the animals endowed with the former,
power are limited to four groups, namely, Insects, the
extinct Pterodactyles or Flying Dragons, Birds, and
Bats. Spurious flight, on the other hand, is found in
Flying Fish, Flying Lizards, Flying Phalangers, Flying
Squirrels, and Flying Lemurs. Among those animals
capable of true flight a broad line of distinction
separates the Insects from the Vertebrates in regard
to the organs set apart for this particular purpose.
Thus, whereas in Insects, all of which are provided
with six paks bf legs, the wings, or special organs of
flight, are frequently four in number, and are in all
cases developed from the back of the body, entirely
independent of the legs; in Vertebrates, where the
number of legs never exceeds four, the two wings are
always formed by special modification of the first pair
of legs. It is therefore evident that although the
wings of Insects, as performing similar functions, are
analogous with those of Vertebrates, yet, as being
structurally quite different, they are in no sense
homologous with the same.

20 ANIMAL. LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

The special modification of the first pair of legs to
subserve the purpose of flight in those Vertebrates
which possess this power in its true form, may be
taken as an indication that such Vertebrates have
originally descended from others in^which that power
was not developed. Although we have no such guide
in the case of Insects, yet the circumstance that in all
those kinds which undergo a complete metamorphosis
no traces of wings are observable in their larvae, points
with equal clearness to the conclusion that these
creatures have been likewise derived from crawling
ancestors, and that their power of flight is an acquired
one. Those Insects which are unable to fly must not,
however, be regarded as ancestral forms, since there is
clear evidence that their wings have been lost or have
become rudimentary. It has been already mentioned
that while all flying Vertebrates have only a single
pair of wings, many Insects are provided with two
pairs of these organs ; and from the tendency among
Insects for one or other of these pairs of wings either
to disappear or to be modified for other purposes, it
would appear that a single pair is decidedly the best
suited for flight.

We shall now proceed to trace some of the chief
modifications in the organs of flight in the different
groups of animals, commencing with Insects, in which,
as already observed, we never meet with spurious
flight.

In all the Beetles, or Coleoptera, which form the
first order of Insects, the front pair of wings are modi-

FLYING ANIMALS. 21

fled into the well-known horn-like wing-covers, or
elytra, beneath which the membranous second pair are
neatly folded during such times as the creatures are
not engaged in flight. In some kinds, such as the
Stag-Beetle and the Water-Beetles, these wing-cases
are long, and extend backwards to the hinder extre-
mity of the body ; but in others, like the well-known
" Devil's Coach-Horse," they are extremely short. The
modification of the front wings into wing-covers clearly
indicates that Beetles are a highly specialised group ;
the extreme development of this specialisation occur-
ring in certain species like the Oil Beetle, where the
second pair of wings have also become rudimentary, so
as to render their owner incapable of flight. In some
degree a confirmation of this specialisation is afforded
by the circumstance that Beetles are not known in the
fossil condition so far down in the geological scale as
are some of the more generalised groups of insects.

In the Bees, Wasps, Ants, and other members of the
second order Hymenoptera, both pairs of wings are
membranous and adapted for flight; the front pair
being, however, considerably the larger of the two. In
the Caddis Flies and other Neuroptera, both pairs of
wings are likewise fully developed and membranous in
structure, although differing in the mode of arrange-
ment of their veins. Moreover, the hinder pair are
frequently nearly as large as the front pair — a circum-
stance which seems to indicate that the whole group is
a more generalised one. The development of the well-
known minute scales on both pairs of wings in the

22

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PKESENT.

Butterflies and Moths readily distinguishes the Lepi-
doptera from all other insects, and likewise suggests
that they form a much specialised modification of the
class. Still greater specialisation as regards their
organs of flight is, however, presented by the Flies and

Gnats, constituting the
order Diptera, in which
while the front pair of
wings are large and mem-
branous, or hairy, the
second pair are reduced
to small, drumstick-like
processes termed balan-
cers, or halteres, which
are of no sort of use in
flight, and are typical
rudimentary organs. The
specialisation of the wing-
structure in this group
is, therefore, exactly the
opposite of what occurs
among the Beetles, where,
as we have already seen,
it is the first pair of

wings which takes no part in flight. In the Cicadas
and Bugs (Fig. 9), constituting the order Ehynchota,
the wings, when present, are four in number, but the
first pair may be converted into horny wing-covers,
as in the Beetles. Like those of the next order,
all the members of this group differ from the insects

FIG. 9.— Enlarged view of a Flying Bug,
with the wings closed.

FLYING ANIMALS. 23

mentioned above in that they do not undergo a
complete metamorphosis before attaining their final
perfect state. The last order that we have to notice
is the Orthoptera, in which are grouped Grasshoppers,
Cockroaches, and Earwigs. Except in a few parasitic
and some other forms, all these insects are furnished
with two pairs of wings, which differ, however, greatly
in structure. Thus, in the Grasshoppers, Cock-
roaches, and Earwigs the front pair are leathery, and
serve as wing-covers to the hinder pair, which are
folded beneath them in a beautiful, fan-like manner.
Whereas, however, in the Grasshoppers the first pair
of wings still take some small share in flight, in the
Earwigs they are extremely small, and serve solely as
covers. The Earwigs, therefore, which many people
believe to be incapable of flight, represent the extreme
of wing-specialisation in this group of Insects.

This closes the list of flying creatures found among
the Invertebrates, and we pass, therefore, to the
A^ertebrates, where we find our first examples of flight
among the class of Fishes. In this group, however, in
spite of assertions to the contrary, there is no instance
of true flight; such fishes as are able to fly at all
merely doing so after the spurious manner. The
longest flights are made by the well-known Flying
Fishes (Fig. 10), of most of the warmer seas, in which
the first pair of fins is greatly elongated for this
purpose. These fishes rise from the water with an
upward impulse made by the sides of the body and tail,
and they may remain above the surface for a distance

24 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of 200 yards. They do not usually reach a height of
more than a few feet above the water, although they
occasionally spring so high as to alight on the decks
of ships. There are few more beautiful sights than to
watch from the bows of a large steamer a shoal of
.Flying Fish as they rise one after another, with their
quick meteor-like flight, and then as suddenly disappear
beneath the dark waters.

Flying Fish, it may be observed, are first cousins of

FIG. 10.— The Flying Fish.

the common Herring. The only other Fish endued
with the power of flight are the Flying Gurnards,
which belong to a totally different group, and of which
there are three kinds inhabiting the Mediterranean
and most tropical seas. All of them are larger and
heavier than the true Flying Fishes, although they
fly in the same manner.

It has been stated that a Frog from the Malay
region uses the large webs on its feet as a kind of

FLYING ANIMALS. 25

parachute in its descent from the trees on which it
dwells to the water, but later researches do not lend
countenance to this idea; and our next examples of
flight must accordingly be drawn from the class of
true Eep tiles. Among living Eeptiles there is no
instance of true night, although two groups are en-
dowed with the power of spurious flight. The first
example of this is the Flying Gecko, a small lizard,
belonging to that peculiar group so well known in
tropical climates from their habit of running up and
down the walls of dwelling-houses. The Flying Gecko
is an inhabitant of Borneo, Java, &c., and attains a
length of about 7 inches. Its sides, limbs, tail, and
head are furnished with loose expansions of skin which,
becoming inflated with air, act as a parachute in the
long, flying leaps which the creature is able to take
from tree to tree. The true Flying Lizards, which
range from India to the Philippines, have their para-
chutes constructed after a totally different fashion;
the last five or six ribs being greatly elongated to
support an expansion of the skin of the flanks, which
forms a fan-like wing on either side. The late Prof.
Moseley described these lizards in the Philippines as
flying so rapidly from branch to branch that the ex-
tension of their parachutes could scarcely be observed ;
and also states that some kept on board ship were in
the habit of flitting from one leg of the table to
another.

Since the extinct Flying Dragons or Pterodactyles
of the Mesozoic epoch, which are the only reptiles

25 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

capable of active flight, are described at length in a
later chapter, our allusion to them will here be brief.
These extraordinary creatures/as shown in Fig. 11, were
furnished with thin membranous wings, supported in
front by the arm and fore-arm near the body, and at
their extremities by the greatly extended joints of a
finger corresponding either to the ring or little finger
of the human hand. This membranous expansion was
continued down the sides of the body to embrace the

Fir,. 11.— Restoration of a Long-tailed Pterodactyle. One-seventh natural size.
(After Marsh.)

legs and the upper part of the tail ; while in at least
some of those species in which the tail was long, its
extremity was furnished with a racket-shaped expan-
sion of membrane (as in Fig. 11), probably used as a
kind of rudder during flight. Some of these creatures
were of enormous dimensions, having an expanse of
wing estimated at upwards of 25 feet. That they
were endowed with the power of true flight is perfectly
evident from their general structure; as is especially
shown by the strong ridge developed on the breast- bone

FLYING ANIMALS. 27

for the attachment of the muscles necessary for the
down-stroke of the wings. Their mode of flight was
probably very similar to that of Bats, which they
appear to have resembled in their wing-membranes,
although the supports of those membranes, as we shall
subsequently see, are arranged on a totally different
plan in the two groups. It is, perhaps, superfluous to
add that any resemblances existing between Ptero-
dactyles and Birds are solely due to their adaptation
to a similar mode of life, and that there is not the
remotest genetic connection between them.

We come now to the Birds, in which true flight
has attained the fullest development, and the whole
organisation is profoundly modified to suit the exigen-
cies of a more or less completely aerial mode of life.
It is true, indeed, that certain birds, such as the
Ostrich, Cassowary, and Penguins, are totally incapable
of flight ; but this incapacity is certainly an acquired
one in the last-named birds, and there is a considerable
probability that it was likewise so in the two former.

The great peculiarity whereby Birds differ from all
other animals is the presence of their external covering
of feathers. A feather, as we all know, is one of the
most beautiful objects in nature ; and its structure is
an admirable instance of adaptation for a particular
purpose. The uses of feathers are two-fold. In the
first place, the small ones with which the body is
clothed form the most perfect covering that can be
imagined to ensure the maintenance of the high bodily
temperature so essential to the active existence of a

: 8 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

bird. Then, again, the larger and stronger feathers -of
the wings are the most efficient instruments for obtain-
ing the utmost advantage from the resistance of the
air to their strokes during flight. The peculiar nature
of the wings of Birds may be summarised by the state-
ment that whereas all other animals fly by means of
expansions of the skin itself, these alone fly by means
of separate outgrowths or processes developed from the
skin.

The wing of a Bird, although constructed on the
same fundamental plan as that of a Pterodactyle,
differs altogether in the manner in which the bones
corresponding to those of the human hand have been
modified for the purposes of flight. In the wing of a
Bird only three fingers are represented at all, and
these probably correspond to the thumb, index, and
middle finger of the human hand. Moreover, while
the thumb is only represented by a small splint of
bone, carrying the so-called "bastard wing," the bones
of the index finger are flattened, and much larger than
those of the third one, with which, in living birds, they
are more or less closely un ted. This finger, therefore,
forms the chief part of the extremity of the wing or
pinion ; but, instead of its bones being much longer than
those of the arm and fore-arm put together, as is the
case with the elongated outer finger (4th or 5th, as the
case may be) of the Pterodactyle, it is much shorter ;
and, indeed, is frequently shorter than either the bone
of the upper arm or those of the fore-arm alone. The
finger, therefore, is the least important part of a Bird's

FLYING ANIMALS. 29

wing, whereas the outer finger is by far the most im-
portant element in that of a Pterodactyle.

It would involve a large amount of detail to give a
full description of the arrangement of the feathers of
a bird's wing ; and it must accordingly suffice to say,
that the large flight-feathers carried by the pinion are
known as the primaries, while those attached to the
larger bone of the fore-arm are termed secondaries;
the smaller feathers which overlie these being desig-
nated as the wing-coverts. In all living birds, as we
have said, the bones representing the fingers are
flattened, and those of the index and third fingers
more or less united together. In the Archceopteryx,
which is the oldest known bird and a contemporary of
the Pterodactyles of the Lithographic Limestones of
Bavaria, all the three fingers were, however, perfectly
separate from one another, and each ended in a claw ;
while the index was not greatly larger than the other
two. We have, therefore, in this bird a decided
approach to reptiles ; from which class it is considered
that birds were originally derived.

In addition to their wjigs we must not omit to
mention that the tails of birds form an important aid
in flight, when they act as a kind of rudder. In all
living birds the bones of the tail are extremely few in
number, and all the large tail-feathers take origin close
together, and are generally spread out in a more or
less fan-like manner. Our old friend the Archseopteryx
had, however, a very long lizard-like tail, with a pair
of feathers arising from each of its numerous joints,

30 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

after the manner of the feathers on an arrow. It will,
however, be readily imagined that such a long unwieldy
tail was by no means calculated to act as an efficient
and compact rudder ; and the shortened tails of modern
birds appear, therefore, to be a decided improvement
on the early type. It seems, indeed, that in all groups
of Vertebrates capable of true flight a long tail has
been found disadvantageous, since among the Ptero-
dactyles the more specialised kinds found in Europe
had discarded the long tail of the species represented
in Fig. 11 ; and the same holds good with regard to the
large toothless kinds found in the Cretaceous rocks of
the United States. Again, the most specialised, or
insectivorous Bats are remarkable for the shortness of
their tails. From the relative shortness of its wings,
coupled with the long unwieldy tail, it is probable that
the Archseopteryx was but a poor flyer, and was,
perhaps, altogether incapable of making the long-
sustained flights of our modern birds, though it must
undoubtedly have been a true flyer.

Birds vary greatly in the relative proportions of the
component bones of the wing, so that among the
strongest flyers we find that whereas in the giant Alba-
tross of the tropical seas the bones of both the upper
and fore-arm are enormously elongated, in the Swift
that of the upper arm is so shortened and thickened as
to be scarcely recognisable. The form and arrange-
ment of the flight-feathers are, however, of still greater
importance in modifying the shape of the wing, but
the reader desirous of information on this subject must

FLYING ANIMALS. 31

consult one of the numerous works on the structure
of birds.

Coming now to the highest class of animals, the
Mammals, we shall find that while true flight is only
possessed by the whole of the members of a single order,
spurious flight occurs among certain members of three
widely distinct orders ; and it is curious to notice the
remarkable external similarity between some of these
animals possessing the power of spurious flight, while
they are structurally so different from one another.

Commencing with spurious flight, the first Mammals
we have to mention are the Flying Phalangers of Aus-
tralia, which belong to the great order of Pouched or
Marsupial Mammals, described in a later chapter, and
are closely allied to the so-called Opossums of the
colonists. There are several genera of these curious
and beautiful creatures, distinguished from one another
by the character of the skull and the shape of the para-
chute, which may be either very broad or very narrow.
This parachute consists of an expansion of the skin of
the sides of the body, extending from the wrist of the
fore-leg to the ankle of the hind-leg, with a smaller
development between the neck and the front of the
fore-leg. The Flying Phalangers are strictly nocturnal
in their habits, and are able to take enormous flying
leaps from tree to tree, during which they descend in
the first part of their course, but acquire a slightly
upward direction before they alight.

It is not till we come to the order of Eodents, or
those Mammals which, like Hares, Rats, and Beavers,

32 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

are provided with a pair of chisel-like gnawing-teeth
in the front of each jaw, that we again meet with
Mammals having the power of spurious flight. Among
the most curious of these are the so-called Anomalures
of Africa, which are small Eodents nearly related to
the Squirrels. Here we find the parachute connect-
ing both pairs of limbs together, as in the Flying
Phalangers, but with the additional peculiarity that
there is a spike-like rod of cartilage projecting from
the elbow, which, by acting in the manner of a yard-
arm, allows the width of the expansion to be greater
than could otherwise be the case. This rod, together
with the presence of a series of scales along the sides
of the base of the tail — from which the creatures
take their name — serves to distinguish the Anomalures
from the Flying Squirrels. Of the latter there are
three genera, mostly found in the oriental region,
although a few species range into North America and
Europe. These creatures (Fig. 12) exactly resemble ordi-
nary Squirrels in general appearance and habits, with
the exception of having a parachute connecting the front
with the hind limbs, after the manner of the Flying
Phalangers. In some species an additional membrane
connects the root of the tail with the thigh, but this
is wanting in others. The flight of the Flying Squirrels
is precisely like that of the Flying Phalangers; and
if the two were to be found together, it would be quite
impossible to distinguish the one from the other dur-
ing flight. Flying Squirrels, however, utter a sharp,
squeaking cry during their flight, while the Flying

FLYING ANIMALS.

33

Phalangers appear to be silent. Ordinary Squirrels, as
we all know, are capable of taking long leaps from bouSh

FJO. 12.— A Flying Squirrel, from the under side. (After Tennent.)

to bough, and in the Flying Squirrel it is merely an ex-
cess of this power which, owing to the development of the
parachute, assumes the character of flight. A precisely

34 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

similar connection obtains between the ordinary PJia-
langers and the Flying Phalangers. There are a large
number of species of Flying Squirrels, which are mostly
of comparatively small size, although one species, from
the north-west of Kashmir, is as large as a rabbit.
Although their cries may frequently be heard at night
in the districts which they inhabit, Flying Squirrels
are but seldom seen. Their flight may be extended to
a distance of twenty-five or thirty yards.

The Flying Lemurs, of the Malay Peninsula and the
Philippines, present a type of Mammal in which the
faculty of spurious flight has attained its maximum of
development. These animals come nearest, in general
structure, to the so-called Insectivorous Mammals,
such as the Mole, Shrew, and Hedgehog, and are,
therefore, usually regarded as forming an aberrant
group of that order. In them not only are the fore
and hind limbs of either side connected together by an
expansion of the skin of the sides to form a parachute,
but the expansion of the skin also extends backwards
between the hind legs, which it connects with the long
tail completely up to its tip. Moreover, although the
fingers and toes are only of the ordinary length, yet
they also are connected by a membrane, in the manner
of the webbed foot of a duck. At night, during which
time they become active, the Flying Lemurs will take
flights of upwards of seventy yards in length, and thus
far outstrip the Flying Squirrels and Phalangers in
this respect. Bats, as we shall notice shortly, are
known to be closely allied to the Insectivores, and the

FLYING ANIMALS. 35

Flying Lemur seems to show us how an ordinary
Insectivore may have become gradually modified into
a Bat ; for it would only require the elongation of the
fingers and a somewhat greater development of the
parachute to transform the Flying Lemur- into a
creature exceedingly like a Bat.

Bats, which are familiar to all of us, are the only
Mammals endued with the power of true flight ; and
although they are evidently related, as shown, among
other features, by the structure of their teeth, to the
Insectivores, yet they are so different as to be entitled
to rank as a separate order by themselves. In being
the only truly flying Mammals they hold, as has been
well observed, a position in the class precisely analogous
to that occupied among the Eeptiles by the Ptero-
dactyles. That they have, however, no sort of connec-
tion with the latter group is perfectly evident from
the structure of the fore-limb, or wing, which we now
proceed to explain.

The wing of a Bat is composed of a thin naked
membrane supported by a great extension of the bones
of the fore-limb ; this membrane being continued
backwards to connect the hind-legs with the whole
length of the tail. In the fore-limb, of which the
skeleton is represented in Fig. 13, the bones of both
the arm and fore-arm are relatively slender and
considerably more elongated than usual. The thumb
remains comparatively small, and ends in a claw ; but
all the other fingers — more especially the third or
middle one — are enormously elongated, so that the

36 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

third, fourth, and fifth, which have no claws at the
end, are absolutely longer than either the fore-arm or
the arm. Between these elongated spider- like fingers
the wing-membrane is stretched, the whole structure
permitting of the wing being folded, when at rest, in

FlQ. 13.— The bones of the right fore-limb of a Bat, seen from above.
h. bone of arm; r.u. bones of fore-arm; px. thumb; ph. claw of
thumb ; m.c. metacarpus ; pW, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers.

the manner familiar to all. A comparison of Fig. 13
with Fig. 11, or, still better, with the figure of the
skeleton of a Pterodactyle, given in the chapter on
Flying Dragons, will show how essentially the wing of
a Bat differs from that of a Pterodactyle. As we
have said, the single finger supporting the wing-

FLYING ANIMALS. 37

membrane of a Pterodactyle corresponds either with
the one marked 4 or that marked 5 in Fig. 13 (probably
the latter), and it may therefore be said that while a
Pterodactyle flies with one finger, a Bat flies with its
whole hand. Equally marked is the difference between
the wing of a Bat and that of a Bird ; the latter having
only the first three fingers of the Bat's wing developed,
and all of these being strangely modified from the
ordinary form, while the chief elongation has taken
place in the bones of the arm and fore-arm, instead of
in those of the fingers, and flight is effected by the aid
of feathers instead of by a membrane.

This completes our survey of the various modes of
flight obtaining in the animal kingdom. In it we have
indicated the difference between spurious and true
flight, have shown how the former is but an extreme
development of the long leaps taken by arboreal
animals, and have suggested how it may have gradually
passed onwards into true flight. We have also seen
how the wings of the Invertebrate animals differ in
toto from those of the Vertebrates; while among the
Vertebrates true flight has been independently deve-
loped in three distinct groups — Pterodactyles, Birds,
and Bats — on totally different structural lines; the
latter instance thus affording us an excellent example
of the way in which different groups of animals may
be variously modified to occupy the same position in
the realm of nature. The supersession of the Ptero-
dactyles by the Birds as the lords of the air is in
accordance with what we have observed elsewhere,

38 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

namely, the replacement, with the advance of time, of
a lower by a higher type of organisation. The Bats,
indeed, which belong to the highest class of animals,
appear to have been the latest in which the power of
flight has been developed ; but since most of them are
of comparatively small size, and of more or less com-
pletely crepuscular and nocturnal habits, they have
never entered seriously into competition with the Birds,
so that both groups are found existing side by side in
full development.

CHAPTER III.

SWIMMING ANIMALS.

IN the preceding chapter we discussed the various
structural modifications by means of which the
members of different groups of animals are enabled
to fly, or, in other words, to swim in the aerial
ocean. From the observations there recorded, it
is evident that all the creatures adapted for this
peculiar mode of life have been specially modified
for that purpose ; flight thus always being a power
which has been specially acquired, and not one
which was an original attribute of any group of
animals.

It is our purpose in the present essay to notice in
a somewhat similar manner the various adaptations of
the structure of certain animals whereby they are en-
abled to swim in the denser medium of water. And
here we shall find that while there is conclusive
evidence to show that in many instances this power is
an acquired one, yet there are others which lead to
the belief that in certain groups it is a primitive
function. Some clue as to the groups in which this
power of swimming is an acquired one, and those in

39

40 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

which it is a primitive one, is afforded by the different
modes in which aquatic animals breathe. Thus in
fishes the air necessary to oxygenate the blood is
obtained from that dissolved in the water itself by its
constant passage over those peculiar comb -like organs,
highly charged with blood, known as gills; such
animals having, therefore, no occasion to come to the
surface of the water to breathe. In other animals,
however, such as Whales and Grampus (Fig. 14),
atmospheric air is breathed directly by means of lungs,
necessitating visits at longer or shorter intervals to the
surface, and it is in such instances that we may safely
infer that the adaptation to an aquatic life has been
gradually developed from ancestors whose normal
habits were terrestrial, since otherwise the gills would
never have been lost. That animals whose original
mode of life was a purely aquatic one have tended in
some cases to assume a terrestrial existence is proved
by the case of the Common Frog, which commences
life as a gill- breathing, swimming creature, to all
intents and purposes a fish, and ends by being an
air-breathing reptile, as much at home on land as in
the water, although retaining the power of swimming.
On the other hand, the Seals and Otters show us how
an originally terrestrial type of animal has become
adapted to pass a large part of its time in the water,
which has become its natural element.

The term " Swimming Animals " is, of course, a very
wide one, since a considerable proportion of animals
whose normal habits are terrestrial can, on occasion,

44 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

swim with more or less facility. Our application of
the term will, however, in the main be restricted to
those -creatures which pass a considerable amount, or
the whole of their time in the water, and which have
accordingly been more or less specially modified for
that kind of life. Again, in many groups of purely
aquatic animals, it is sometimes difficult to say which
are true swimmers ; a certain number leading an active
life when young, and becoming more or less complete
fixtures in adult life. We shall commence our survey
with the Invertebrate Animals, treating them, however,
in a somewhat briefer manner than the Vertebrates,
and alluding only to some of the more striking adapta-
tions of certain parts of the body for the purpose of
swimming.

All are familiar with those disc-like masses of
pellucid gelatinous matter so often thrown up on our
sea-beaches, and popularly known as Jelly- Fishes ; but
to see them in their full beauty we should look down
from the bows of a large vessel traversing the warmer
oceans. There they may be seen in countless multi-
tudes, extending as far down in the water as the eye
can penetrate, and by daylight presenting various tints
of pink and purple, while by night they are often
phosphorescent. These Medusse, as they are techni-
cally called, are gelatinous creatures shaped somewhat
like an umbrella, the " handle " being formed by a mass
of thick tentacles hanging down in the water. They
swim by the alternate contraction and expansion of the
" umbrella " or bell ; the diameter of which may con-

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 45

siderably exceed a foot. Medusae belong to that great
group of animals known as Zoophytes, which includes
the Polypes, Sea-Aneniones, and Corals. They afford
an example of the so-called "alternation of genera-
tions;" being themselves developed by the division of
a fixed polype into a number of saucer-like sections,
which become free and swim away, and in turn lay
eggs, again developing into fixed Polypes, like the
original parent.

Our next illustration is taken from the Crustaceans,
among which the Lobsters and some of the Crabs are
expert swimmers. In the Lobster and Cray-Fishes,
where the tail is long, and furnished with five hinged
and paddle-like plates, the most rapid motions in the
water are effected by suddenly bending the tail beneath
the body, and thus driving the creature forcibly back-
wards by the recoil of the water. Prawns and Shrimps
have a similar mode of swimming ; but those Crabs
which, like the " Fiddlers," are free swimmers, have the
terminal joints of the fifth pair of legs (and sometimes
also those of the three next pairs) developed into flat
paddles fringed with hairs. These claws are thus
quite different from the pointed claws of the common
Shore-Crab. Since Crabs and Lobsters breathe by
means of gills, they may be safely regarded as primitive
swimmers ; those species which, like the Land-Crab,
are terrestrial having acquired this habit, and thus
having to put up with the inconvenience of keeping
their gills constantly moist. We cannot take leave of
the Crustaceans without mentioning the Barnacles, as

•44 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

represented by the common Acorn-Barnacle covering
the rocks on our coasts, and the Stalked- Barnacle which
is more commonly found on the bottoms of ships. In
their young state these curious creatures are free-
swimming Crustaceans, but after a time, becoming
tired of a roving life, fix themselves on their backs by
the front of their heads to some solid object, and then
develop their well-known shells; the feather-like fan
which protrudes from the aperture of these shells being
the greatly modified legs, now acting as feelers for the
purpose of capturing food. What induced the strange
belief that the Stalked-Barnacles underwent a further
metamorphosis to appear as Barnacle- Geese, passes
ordinary comprehension.

Passing on to the Arachnids (Spiders and Scorpions)
and Insects, we find that these creatures, whether
aquatic or terrestrial, breathe atmospheric air by means
of a system of tubes known as tracheae, and we are
accordingly led to conclude that such of them as are
adapted to an aquatic life have acquired this habit.
This is especially well shown by the instance of the
Water-Spider, which, while agreeing in structure with
other spiders, has the limbs fringed and somewhat
flattened for swimming, and is in the habit, when
diving in the water, of carrying down with it a bubble
of air clinging to the hairs of the abdomen.

Among the Insects, the larv£e of many groups in
which the perfect animals inhabit the air, such as the
Dragon-Flies, May-Flies, and Gnats, are aquatic.
Whereas, however, the larvre of the two former groups

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 45

are not swimmers, and, therefore, do not come within
the scope of the present article, those of the Gnats are
endowed in great perfection with the power of swim-
ming. With their large heads and their tapering
bodies, these ugly larvae are probably familiar to most
of us, swimming about in ponds and tanks with great
agility by a sudden jerking motion of the body, or at
intervals suspending themselves head downwards at
the surface of the water for the purpose of breathing
through a tube situated in the tail. Other insects are
aquatic in the adult state. Some of the commonest
British examples are the "Water-Scorpion (Nepa) and
Water-Boatman (Notonecta), both belonging to the
order Rhynchota. These swim by means of the hind
legs, which are, however, scarcely fringed in the former,
although markedly so in the latter. The Water-
Scorpion has two tail-like organs at the end of the
body, which, when put in opposition, form a tube
through which the creature can breathe without com-
ing quite to the surface. The Water-Boatman, as its
scientific name implies, has the curious habit of swim-
ming on its back; when at rest for the purpose of
taking in a fresh supply of air the long hind legs are
extended nearly at right angles to the body, and thus
recall a boatman resting on his oars.

The remaining aquatic insects are the Water- Bee ties
(Coleoptera), of which there are several families, in
all of which both the larvae and adults are aquatic,
although the pupae are quiescent and lie hidden in
holes in the ground. The Water-Beetles are easily

46 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

recognised by their oval, flat, and boat-like form, some
of the species attaining a large size. Most of them
swim entirely by the aid of their hind legs, which are
greatly enlarged, flattened, and fringed. In the curious
little " Whirligig" Beetles (Gyrinus), which are so often
seen performing their mazy evolutions on the surfaces
of ponds and rivers, the reverse of this arrangement
obtains, the front pair of legs being enormously
elongated, and the second and third pairs very short
and paddle-like. The forward motion of these beetles
is produced by these short paddles, while the curves
are formed by the long fore limbs, which are darte 1
out first from one side and then from the other, so as
to change the direction of the body.

The last Invertebrate group we have to mention is
the large one of the Molluscs, or Shell-fish. Here by
far the greater number of species are aquatic, and
breathe by gills, so that we may regard those which
are swimmers as being primitively so. Although the
adults of the Bivalve Molluscs are either fixed to some
solid substance (Oysters), or are merely capable of
leaping or turning (Cockles and Fan-shells), yet in
their young state all these Molluscs are free swimmers,
young oysters being provided with swimming-organs
composed of delicate hairs. It thus seems probable
that these locomotive habits have been transmitted
to the young bivalves from originally free-swimming
ancestors.

The ordinary Sea Snails (Gastropods), in which the
adult creeps on solid surfaces by means of its greatly

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 47

expanded "foot," are also free swimmers when first
hatched, the swimming being effected by means of
vigorous flappings of a pair of fin,s attached near the
head. A similar structure and habits have been re-
tained in the adult by the Pteropods, those small
translucent Molluscs, of pelagic habits, so abundant
in some of the northern seas, which afford a consider-
able proportion of the food of certain species of whales.
A well-known writer states that "multitudes of these
little things may now and then be seen on the surface
of the water, fluttering with their wings and glittering
in the sunshine, to be compared with nothing more
aptly than a congregation of the more dressy of the
Bombyx Moths."

Although not a true swimmer, the well-known Violet
Snail (lanthina) is able to float on the surface of the
ocean, either by expanding its " foot," or by developing
at certain seasons a peculiar membranous raft-like
structure, the cells of which are filled with air, and
beneath which the eggs are carried.

A totally different mode of progression through the
water is adopted by that group of Molluscs technically
known as Cephalopods, in which the head is surrounded
by a circle of long prehensile arms, provided with
adhesive suckers. This group comprises the existing
Cuttle Fishes, Squids, Argonauts, and Nautili, as well
as the extinct Ammonites (Fig. 15), and a host of other
fossil forms. In the free swimming forms, locomotion
is effected by the forcible expulsion of a jet of water
from a funnel situated near the head, and directed

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

forwards, the result of which is to propel the anirrjal
backwards. Minor aid in swimming is afforded either
by expansions of the skin on the sides of the body, or

by distinct fins near the tail ;
while many of these creatures
aid their escape from foes by
the sudden discharge of an
inky fluid during their back-
ward course.

Our notice of swimming
Invertebrates cannot be con-
cluded without mention of
those curious marine animals
known as Sea -Squirts, and
technically as Tunicates — a
group usually placed in the
neighbourhood of the Mol-
luscs. Although in the adult state many of the
Tunicates exist in the form of the bag-like squirts
with which many of us are familiar, yet all are free-
swimming creatures in the young condition. Moreover,
certain of them, like the Salpae, are pelagic through-
out their existence ; some of the latter forming chains
composed of numerous individuals attached to one
another. These Salpse-chains vary in length, from a
few inches to several feet, and swim on the ocean
surface with a serpentine movement. The great
interest attaching to these Tunicates is that the young
exhibit certain structures closely simulating the primi-
tive condition of the spinal column of Vertebrates, and

FIG. If).— Shell of Ammonite
(After Gaudry.)

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 49

thus suggest that they are degraded types allied to
the original stock from which the Vertebrates them-
selves are descended. This is very important as regards
the derivation of Vertebrates from aquatic animals ;—
an origin which we should naturally expect, seeing that
fishes breathe by means of gills, and are, therefore,
presumed to have had aquatic ancestors.

With the Fishes, which, with the exception of the
Whales, are perhaps, of all animals, the most beauti-
fully adapted for rapid motion through the water, we
enter the great group of Vertebrates. The contour of
an ordinary fish, such as the Perch (Fig. 16), is
modelled on those lines best suited for cleaving the
water, through which the fish is propelled mainly by
the muscular tail with its terminal fin. The fins on
the body act chiefly as balances, although aiding to a
certain extent in propulsion. These body-fins in all
fishes are of two types, namely, paired and median.
The number of paired fins is two, the front pair corres-
ponding with the fore limbs, and the hinder pair with
the hind limbs of quadrupeds. In the Perch (Fig. 16),
the front or pectoral pair of fins are seen immediately
behind the head; the second or pelvic pair being
placed below and slightly behind the pectoral ones.
In many other fishes (as in Fig. 2, p. 5) the hinder pair
of fins occupy, however, a position corresponding with
that of the hind limbs of quadrupeds. The pectoral
fins, although assisting to a certain extent in the
motion .of the fish through the water, act rather in
directing its course than as propellers. Their chief

50 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

function is, however, to maintain the balance of the
body in the water ; a fish which has lost one of these
fins falling over to the opposite side. It will be
observed from Fig. 16, that the pectoral fin of a Perch
(as well as of most of our existing fishes) consists of a
number of rays spreading out in a fan-like manner
from the point of attachment to the body. A totally
different arrangement obtains, however, in the pectoral
fin of the extinct fish represented in Fig. 2, p. 5. Here

FIG. 1(5.— The Common Perch.

it will be seen that the fin consists of a central lobe
covered with scales, from the edges of which the
fin-rays project as a deep fringe. This more primitive
type of fin is indeed very common among the extinct
fishes of the Palaeozoic rocks, and still persists in
the Baramunda of the Queensland rivers, a figure of
which is given in the chapter on " Mail-Clad Animals."
The more important median fins are the dorsal on the
back, and the anal in front of the tail. In many
fishes (Figs. 2 and 16) there are two dorsal (ins, one in

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 51

front of the other ; the front one being often large and
spiny, and the hind one small and soft (Fig. 16).

The tail and tail- fin form, as we have said, the chief
propeller of the fish ; and it will be particularly noticed
that the position of this fin is vertical. In swimming,
as we may observe in an aquarium where fish are kept,
the tail is rapidly and strongly bent from side to side,
while the two lobes of its fin have an undulating
motion, and thus act like the blades of a screw-pro-
peller. A difference between the structure of the tail-
fin in the two figured fishes recalls the one already
noticed in the pectoral fin. Thus in the Perch (Fig. 16)
the scaly part of the tail ends in an abrupt and almost
straight edge, from which the rays of the fin form a
nearly symmetrical fork. In Fig. 2, on the other hand,
the scaled part of the tail is produced to a point,
extending far back among the fin-rays, which are
arranged unsymmetrically along its two edges. It is
this latter mode of arrangement which is the older and
more primitive.

In certain fishes which depart more or less widely
from the ordinary form, there is a corresponding modi-
fication in the shape and functions of the fins. For
instance, the Eays swim almost entirely by the aid of
the greatly expanded pectoral fins, which have an
undulating motion very similar to that of the median
fins of ordinary fishes. On the other hand, in the
Flying Fishes (see "Flying Animals," Fig. 10), the
pectoral fins are enormously elongated, so as to act as
organs of spurious flight. Again, snake-like fishes, as

52 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the eel, swim by lateral curvatures of the body, in the
so-called serpentine manner.

The only other Vertebrate animals which breathe by
means of gills, and can therefore be regarded as primi-
tively aquatic, are the young, or larvas, of the Amphi-
bians (Frogs, &c.). The young Tadpole, as we all know,
is an ugly, large-headed creature, swimming by means
of lateral movements of its tail. This tail has a
vertical fin-like expansion, differing, however, from the
fins of fishes by the absence of the bony or cartilaginous
rays found in the latter. We have already alluded to
the remarkable metamorphosis undergone by the Tad-
pole, in the course of which the tail is lost, the gills are
replaced by lungs, and the limbs developed. The
adult Frog is an instance of an animal adapted to live
partly on land and partly in the water, swimming
powerfully in the latter element by the strokes of its
long hind legs, of which the toes are fully webbed.
The Tailed Amphibians, such as the Newts and Sala-
manders, are less specially modified than the Frogs,
and may be completely aquatic. All the Newts and
Salamanders, including the purely aquatic Giant Sala-
mander of Japan, lose, however, their gills in the adult
state ; but these are permanently retained in the
curious blind Proteus of the caverns of Carniola.

Among the true reptiles of the present day (all of
which breathe by means of lungs during the whole of
their existence), there are three groups among which
aquatic forms occur. The first of these includes the
Crocodiles and Alligators, which swim by means of

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 53

their long tail and limbs. Although these animals are
thoroughly at home in the water, where they spend a
large portion of their time, their organisation has not
been so modified for the exigencies of an aquatic life
as to depart to any great extent from the normal type.
The same remark will apply with still more force to
our Common Snake, which is an expert swimmer. In
the Sea- Snakes, however, which pass the whole of their
life in the tropical seas, the tail assumes a vertically
compressed and paddle-like form, and is thus nearly as
efficient a propeller as the tail of a fish. These snakes
always swim on the surface of the sea, but it is very
doubtful if they can have given rise to the stories of
the Sea-Serpent.

Among the Chelonians the Marine Turtles have been
especially adapted for an aquatic life by the modification
of their limbs into oar-like paddles ; although it is
quite clear that this structure is an acquired one. The
Soft Turtles (Trionyces), of the rivers of the warmer
regions of the globe, are almost equally good swimmers,
although their feet, with the exception of being webbed,
retain the ordinary type of structure. The Pond-
Tortoise, now restricted to Southern Europe, although
occurring in the superficial deposits of this country, is
almost equally aquatic. Indeed all Tortoises (except
perhaps the gigantic ones of the Galapagos and
Mascarene Islands) are excellent swimmers, and thus
afford a good instance of how some members of a group
have gradually adapted themselves to an almost com-
pletely aquatic life.

54

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

If, however, the Turtles have
been specially modified for an
aquatic existence, still more
markedly is this the case with
the extinct Tchthyosaurs or Fish-
Lizards (Fig. 17). As the struc-
ture of these reptiles is fully
described in a later chapter, we
need only allude here to the
peculiar pavement-like structure
of the bones of the paddles ; this
being the extreme modification
which limbs have undergone for
the purposes of an aquatic life.
Since, as shown by the absence
of gills and the indications of
remnants of a horny covering to
the body, there is abundant evi-
dence that the Ichthyosaurs are
descended from land animals,
they occupy a position among
reptiles precisely analogous to
that held among Mammals by
the Whales of the present epoch.

The long-necked Plesiosaurs,
to which a special chapter is
likewise devoted, were reptiles
equally well adapted for an
aquatic existence, but in which
the modification of the limbs

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 55

into paddles had not been carried to the same degree
as in the Ichthyosaurs. The evidence for the derivation
of the Plesiosaurs from terrestrial reptiles is even fuller
than in the case of the group last mentioned.

Before taking leave of the reptiles we have to allude
to another totally different assemblage of extinct aquatic
forms, which were much more closely allied to the
existing Lizards, and many of which were of gigantic
dimensions. These creatures are generally known as
the Mosasaurs, and were first brought to notice dur-
ing the last century, when a huge skull was obtained
from the upper Cretaceous beds of Maastricht, on the
Meuse ; the Latin name of the group being taken from
that river.

These Mosasaurs, of which a large number of kinds
are now known, differ from the Ichthyosaurs and
Plesiosaurs in that the joints of their backbone, in-
stead of having both front and back surfaces either
deeply cupped or nearly flat (Fig. 24) had cup-and-
ball articulations, the cup occupying the front surface.
This type of structure is common to existing Crocodiles
and Lizards ; but whereas in the former the ribs
articulate with the joints of the backbone by means of
long transverse processes jutting out from them, in the
latter the ribs articulate directly with the aforesaid
joints. Now the Mosasaurs have the latter mode of
articulation, and, since they agree with the modern
Lizards in the structure of their skulls, as well as in
many other points of their bony anatomy, there can be
no hesitation in regarding them as a group descended

56 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

from the ancestral Lizards which have taken to. an
aquatic mode of life.

The Mosasaurs are confined to the Cretaceous epoch,
and thus lived side by side with the Ichthyosaurs for
the greater part of their term of existence, although
they attained their maximum development in the very
highest Cretaceous beds when the Ichthyosaurs and
Plesiosaurs seem to have disappeared. For a short
time, then, these creatures appear to have been the
only gigantic marine Vertebrates, filling up the gap left
by the disappearance of the Ichthyosaurs, which had
not yet been occupied by the Whales. They were of
carnivorous habits, as shown by their formidable teeth,
and, like all groups of Vertebrates which have taken
to a marine life, far exceeded in dimensions any of
their terrestrial cousins, the length of some of the
fepecies being as much as forty feet.
\J We come now to the Birds, several groups of which
are exclusively composed of species specially adapted
for an aquatic life. Swimming birds, as a rule, support
themselves on the surface of the water, taking occa-
sional dives of longer or shorter duration, and, there-
fore, have no need to make any especial arrangements
for breathing. They swim by using their legs as oars,
the feet being webbed, and the toes folding up as the
foot is brought forward after one stroke to prepare for
a second. As we shall see, however, some species aid
their swimming with their wings. All birds that
swim have relatively short legs, which are generally
placed far back on the body, since this position gives

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 57

the maximum power in propelling the animal through
the water.

There are six chief groups of swimming birds,
namely, the Ducks, Geese, and Swans (Anseres) ; the
Pelicans, Cormorants, and Darters (Steganopodes) ; the
Gulls (Gaviae) ; Petrels (Tubinares) ; the Divers, Auks,
and Grebes (Pygopodes) ; and the Penguins (Impennes).
There are, however, a few members of other groups,
such as the Dipper among the Passerines, and the Coot
among the Eails, which are also expert divers and
swimmers. The circumstance, however, that in neither
of these instances is the foot fully webbed — that of
the Dipper being like the foot of a Thrush, and that
of a Coot only having web-like expansions on the sides
of the toes — indicates that the aquatic habits of these
birds are of comparatively recent acquisition, and
have not induced any strongly marked structural pecu-
liarities.

The Anseres include by far the greater number of
swimming birds, and the admirable adaptation of their
form and structure to their mode of life is so well
known as to require no further mention. The Pelicans
and their allies differ from that group in that the web
includes all the four toes of the foot (Fig. 18), instead
of only the three front ones. In this group the
Frigate Bird has a shorter leg than any bird of equal
size. The Darters, or Snake-Birds, of which there are
four species found in the warmer regions of the globe,
and of which examples are generally to be seen in
the Zoological Society's Gardens, are, however, those

58 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

members of the group most interesting from our
present point of view. These birds frequent fresh
waters, and swim with the whole of the body sub-
merged, so that only the head and upper part^of the

long and flexible neck are
exposed. In this position
they look not unlike snakes
swimming on the water,
when seen from a little dis-
tance. It does not appear
that any use of the wings is
made in swimming. The
Gulls and Petrels, in which
the hind toe of the foot is

FIG. 18.— Foot of Pelican.

not included in the web,

have longer legs than most swimming birds, and' the
legs themselves are placed nearer the middle of the
body. Since these birds depend mainly upon their
powers of flight for obtaining their food, most of them
only make use of the surface of the water, upon which
they float placidly, as a resting-place.

The Divers, Auks, and Grebes are, with the exception
of the Penguins, those birds which appear to have been
most profoundly modified for a life in the water, being
equally at home both on and below its surface. In
these birds the short legs are placed so far back that
when on land the body is carried in a more or less
nearly erect position, as we may observe in the Guille-
mots and Puffins of our coasts. Although the legs
themselves are very short, yet the toes are elongated,

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 59

so as to convert the feet into very powerful oars. Most
of these birds look exceeding awkward when on land,
and as they use both their feet and wings in diving,
the water is undoubtedly the element in which they
are most at home. Speaking of the Bed-Throated Diver
of Northern Europe, Mr. Dresser observes that "it
swims low down in the water, and when uneasy or
alarmed will submerge its body below the surface,
leaving only the head and neck in view. When it
dives it vanishes beneath the surface without noise or
flutter, and propels itself along with its wings as well
as its feet, frequently remaining for some time before
it emerges to view again."

The most remarkable modification which birds have
undergone for the purposes of an aquatic life is, how-
ever, presented by the Penguins of the Southern Ocean.
These grotesque birds, some of which attain a very
large size, are even more upright than the Puffins, and
when arranged in lines on the cliffs of the Antarctic
lands have been compared to regiments of soldiers.
Their short wings, which are utterly useless for flight,
and have but a very limited range of motion, are con-
verted into flipper- like paddles, covered with short
bristly feathers; their only use being as additional
swimming organs. We have here, therefore, an instance
of an organ originally modified for an especial purpose
— flight — subsequently undergoing a kind of retrograde
modification for a totally different use, although still
retaining the structural peculiarities which it presents
in ordinary birds. Certain features in the structure of

60 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the leg of the Penguins suggest, however, that these
birds belong to a very primitive type.

We must not conclude our notice of swimming birds
without reference to the extinct Hesperornis, of the
Cretaceous beds of the United States. This remarkable
bird, which was nearly six feet in length, shows evidence
of its relationship to reptiles by the retention of a
complete series of sharp-pointed teeth in both jaws.
In the structure of its bones it appears to come nearest
to the Grebes and Divers, but it differs from all other
swimming birds in having lost (so far as can be deter-
mined) all traces of wings; and thus affords one of
several instances where species long extinct are in
certain respects more specialised than any of their
living relatives.

Our remaining examples of Swimming Animals are
taken from the class of Mammals, or Quadrupeds, as
they are often popularly, though inconveniently, termed.
And we shall find that in certain members of this
group the adaptation to an aquatic life has been so
complete as to have led to the loss of all external
features characteristic of ordinary members of the
class, and has thus induced the erroneous popular
belief that the animals in question are really fishes.

In several groups of Mammals we find that a few
species, or genera, have been more or less modified so
as to become expert swimmers and divers. Instances
of these are afforded by the Australian Duck-Bill
among the egg-laying Mammals, the Otter among the
Carnivores, the Beaver and Water- Vole among the

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 61

Rodents, and the Hippopotamus among the Ungulates.
Since, however, none of these depart very widely from
the normal type of structure, we may pass to the
consideration of two groups, in which all the members
have undergone more or less profound structural altera-
tions solely and simply for the purpose of swimming.

The first of these groups is that of the Seals and
Walruses, which form a special division of the Carni-
vores. Through the specimens exhibited from time to
time in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, most of
us are more or less familiar with the external form of
the Seals (Fig. 19), and have also witnessed the exceed-
ing gracefulness of their evolutions in the water. In
all Seals the limbs are very short, and by the complete
webbing of the toes, are converted into paddle-like
organs. Although the amount of modification is greater
in the hind than in the fore limb, yet in both the
several digits of the feet still retain their external
distinctness. In the so-called Eared-Seals (from which
the seal-skin of commerce is albne obtained) and
Walruses the hind feet are turned forwards beneath
the body when the animal is on land, after the ordinary
manner. In the true Seals, however (Fig. 19), these
feet are always directed backwards, and thus act solely
as propellers in the water. All the Seal tribe are
clearly very closely allied to the ordinary land Carni-
vores; and the Eared- Seals and Walruses indicate
the mode in which such animals have undergone a
progressive modification until the extreme specialisation
of the true Seals has been attained.

62 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

The second group, containing the Whales, Porpoises,
Grampuses, Dolphins, &c., differs so remarkably from
all other Mammals that it has been referred to a dis-
tinct order — the Cetacea. All the members of this
group (Fig. 14) have, indeed, assumed such a completely
fish-like appearance that it is even now frequently
difficult to convince people that they are true Mammals.
Their mammalian nature is, however, shown by their
warm blood and four-chambered heart, by the circum-
stance that they produce their young in a living con-
dition and nourish them by milk drawn from the udder
of the parent, and also by their respiration being
effected by the aid of lungs. The "spouting" of
Whales as they come to the surface is, indeed, mainly
due to the water of the sea being thrown up as the
air from the lungs is forcibly expelled from the
nostrils before the animal has quite reached the
surface. We may add that the certainty that Whales
are true members of the mammalian class is one
of the strongest reasons against employing the term
" quadrupeds " to denote that division of Vertebrates.

Although, as aforesaid, the general appearance of a
Whale or Porpoise is fish-like, yet a more careful
examination shows certain very important points of
difference. In the first place, the tail-fin, or " flukes "
as it is termed by whalers, is expanded horizontally
instead of vertically. The reason for this horizontal
expansion appears to be owing to the necessity the
Whale is under of coining rapidly to the surface for
the purpose of breathing ; the upward and downward

64 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

strokes of the powerful flukes being admirably suited
to effect this object with the greatest speed. Then,
again, the number and structure of the paddles and
fins are quite different from those obtaining in fishes.
Thus, a Whale (using this term for the whole group of
allied animals) has only a single pair of flippers (Fig.
14), which correspond to the fore limbs of ordinary
Mammals, and to the pectoral fins of fishes. These,
however, although presenting certain peculiarities, are
evidently only modifications of the normal mammalian
fore limb, and are devoid of any structures correspond-
ing to the fin-rays of fishes. They have lost all out-
ward trace of the digits, being completely invested in
a common integument. Then, again, the pelvic fins of
fishes are wanting ; the only traces of hind limbs being
certain rudimentary bones found deeply bedded in the
flesh of some of the species, which represent the
aborted hind legs of quadrupedal Mammals. If, more-
over, Whales have any unpaired fins the single one is
situate on the back (Fig. 14), and its structure is quite
different from that of the dorsal fin of a fish. In order
to enable them to stay for long periods below the
surface, the circulatory system of Whales develops a
number of net-like arrangements of the vessels in
which a supply of fresh blood is stored up.

It would involve too much detail to enter into the
consideration of the numerous other resemblances
existing between Whales and "ordinary Mammals, but
there can be no sort of doubt but that they are members
of the class ; and likewise practically none that they

SWIMMING ANIMALS. 65

are descended from a group of originally terrestrial
forms, the special modification having in this case been
carried to a considerably greater degree than in Seals,
which we know have undergone an analogous develop-
ment. Naturalists are, indeed, not altogether in har-
mony as to the kind of terrestrial Mammals from
which Whales have descended, but the probability is
that such ancestral types were more nearly allied to
the pig-like Ungulates than to any other type of
Mammals with which we are acquainted. The Hippo-
potamus shows us how a pig-like animal may become
amphibious, and there is no reason why a further
development should not go on. It will, however, be
understood that the terrestrial ancestors of the Whales
have long since disappeared from the face of the earth ;
and it should be added that not a trace of the inter-
mediate connecting forms has yet revealed itself to
reward the anxious search of the palaeontologist. The
Cetacea are first known in the upper part of the Eocene
division of the Tertiary period, and it thus seems quite
clear that they were developed to fill the gap left in
the life of the ocean by the disappearance of the
Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs at the close of the
Secondary period ; the general replacement of a lower
by a higher type of organisation being apparently the
great life-feature by which the early part of the former
period is distinguished from the latter.

CHAPTER IV.
PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS.

IF we assume that naturalists are right in regarding
evolution as the true explanation of the mutual re-
lationships of living beings, and if we also take it for
granted that fishes are the lowest representatives of
vertebrated animals of which we have at present any
cognisance, we should naturally expect to find in some
of the lower rocks, at a period when fishes had already
obtained considerable development, remains of animals
in some respects connecting fishes with reptiles. This
expectation is fully realised by the presence in the
Coal-measures and lower Secondary rocks of a remark-
able group of totally extinct animals, which may be
popularly termed Primeval Salamanders, since their
nearest living allies are to be found in the Efts of our
own ponds, in the well-known yellow-and-black Sala-
manders of the Continent, and in the so-called Giant
Salamanders of Japan and the United States, with the
latter of which we have become more or less familiar
of late years by means of aquaria.

It may save trouble, before going farther, to mention
that although Salamanders and their kin are popularly
spoken of as reptiles, yet they have really no right to

66

PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS. 67

such a high rank, since they show many signs of re-
lationship with fishes, all of which are quite lost in re-
cent reptiles. These creatures should rather be spoken
of as Amphibians, by which title we shall hence-
forth allude to them when we desire to speak of them
in a collective sense. Frogs and toads are likewise
members of the same great group, of which one of the
most distinctive features is that during their lives its
members pass through a metamorphosis — thus chang-
ing from a purely aquatic creature (the tadpole) without
limbs, and breathing by means of gills like a fish, to
one which becomes capable of progression on land,
with two pairs of legs, and breathing either entirely or
partially by means of lungs, the gills being in some
cases completely lost (as in the frog), but occasionally
retained as subsidiary breathing organs. This change or
metamorphosis, we may remark in passing, is of itself
almost sufficient to prove the doctrine of evolution,
being, in fact, nothing less than the actual transforma-
tion, under our very eyes, of a creature a little higher
than a fish into one but little lower than a reptile ; so
little lower, indeed, that, as we have said, it popularly
obtains brevet rank in that group. A feature by which
the skull of an Amphibian can always be distinguished
from that of a Keptile, at a glance, is found in the
mode in which it articulates with the first joint of the
back-bone or vertebral column. Thus, in Amphibians,
as shown in Fig. 21, the hinder or occipital region of
the skull is furnished with two processes, or condyles,
which are received into a pair of cups in the first joint

68 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of the back-bone ; an arrangement — and this is a very
significant point — similar to that which obtains in
Mammals. In Eeptiles (and likewise in their near
relations, the Birds), on the other hand, there is but a
single knob-like occipital condyle, situated in the
middle line, and received into a single cup in the first
joint of the back-bone.

With this preliminary explanation we may proceed
to the consideration of the Primeval Salamanders. In
this country the first evidence of the bony skeleton of
these creatures that was brought under notice was
afforded by teeth from the New Eed Sandstone (at the
lower part of the Secondary system of rocks) of
Warwickshire and Cheshire. These teeth, which are
of conical form, are remarkable for the circumstance
that when a transverse section of their base is made,
and examined under a lens or microscope, the whole of
the internal portion is seen to be made up of a most
complex series of foldings, forming a peculiar and
characteristic labyrinth-like structure (Fig. 20). From
this feature the veteran comparative anatomist, Sir
E. Owen, proposed the name of Labyrinthodonts, or
Labyrinth-toothed Saurians, for the owners of these re-
markable teeth; and although some of the smaller
species subsequently discovered do not exhibit the
same complexity of tooth-structure, this name may
well be adopted as the technical designation of the
whole group. By a masterly piece of induction the
great anatomist also showed that certain gigantic skulls
of the type of the one represented in Fig. 21, which

PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS. 69

had been discovered at an earlier date in the corre-
sponding rocks of Germany, and whose owners have
been named Mastodonsaurs, belonged to other species
of the same group. It was further known at the same
time that some curious hand-like footprints of a large
unknown animal, for which the name of Chirothere
(Hand-animal) had been proposed, were of not un-

FlQ. 20. — A. Fragment of jaw of a Primeval Salamander, showing sections of
four teeth. B. One half of a tooth (a) greatly magnified.

common occurrence in the Cheshire and Warwickshire
sandstones, and the idea naturally occurred that these
were the tracks of Labyrinthodonts. Now, it is highly
probable, although not absolutely certain, that this
conjectural association of the tracks with the teeth and
skulls is a true one ; but, most unfortunately, the evil
genius of the Professor led him to sketch a restoration

70 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of the Labyrinthodont, or Chiro there formed on the1
model of a gigantic frog ; and although it was sub-
sequently shown that the idea of a frog with a skull of
a yard in length was totally impossible, yet, with the
tendency of all errors to perpetuate themselves, we
still see books (even some of them published within
the last few years) disfigured by reproductions of this
impossible tailless creature.

Instead of the Primeval Salamanders being modelled
on the lines of a frog, they were, indeed, constructed
after the fashion of a modern Eft or Salamander,
having, in the adult state, four limbs adapted for
walking, and a well-developed tail. Nearly the whole
of them differed, however, from modern Salamanders,
in that the chest was defended by an armour of three
bony plates — one central and two lateral — ornamented
with a sculpture similar to that shown in the skull
represented in Fig. 21. In addition to this, other
species had the whole of the under surface of the body
protected by a series of bony scales, arranged in a
chevron pattern ; while in a few rare instances the
whole of the body was covered with an armour of
these bony scales. We thus see that the earlier
members of this group come under the designation of
mail-clad animals, of which we have treated in a
previous chapter.

Another absolutely distinctive feature of the Primeval
Salamanders is to be found in the structure of the
skull. It will be seen from Fig. 21 that the whole of
the upper surface of the skull behind the eye-holes, or

PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS. 71

orbits, is covered by a complete bony roof, extending
continuously from the bone marked P, which immedi-
ately covers the brain-case, to the sides of the hinder
part of the jaws. If we compare the skull of a
crocodile with this figure, we shall find, in place of this
continuous roof, a long open channel cut from behind
each orbit in the direction of the bone marked S.
Temp, to the back of the skull, while there is also a
pair of oval vacuities in the region of the bones
marked Sq. A Lizard has the hinder part of the skull
still more completely opened out. The completely
roofed skull of the Primeval Salamanders appears,
indeed, to show signs of affinity with some of the
earlier fishes ; and there seems to have been a gradual
tendency among Eeptiles to emancipate themselves
from this type of skull as time went on. For instance,
the Fish-Lizards (Ichthyosaurs), which show signs of
direct connection with the Primeval Salamanders in
the somewhat folded internal structure of their teeth,
and in their simply cupped vertebrae, are also those
reptiles which exhibit the nearest approximation to
this roofed type of skull ; while the modern and highly
specialised Lizards are those which depart most
widely from it. It may be worth mention that some
of those naturalists who are never satisfied with a
name, unless it be one for which they are personally
sponsors, have proposed to replace the well-established
name of Labyrinthodonts by that of Stegocephalians, or
Roof-skulled Saurians — a term sufficiently appropriate
if no earlier one had barred the way to its adoption.

72 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Another peculiar although not absolutely character-
istic feature of the skull of the Primeval Salamanders
is the net-like sculpture with which the external
surface of all the bones is ornamented (Fig. 21). The
reappearance of a similar sculpture in the skulls of
Crocodiles has suggested that those reptiles may trace
their ancestry directly back to the group under con-
sideration. We must not, however, omit to mention
the small round aperture which occurs in the bones of
the skull immediately over the brain-cavity in all
Primeval Salamanders, and is seen to the left of the
letter P in Fig. 21. This aperture corresponds to one
found in the skull of that curious New Zealand Lizard
known as the Tuatara, which is one of the most
primitive reptiles now living, having but little affinity
with true lizards. In that creature this aperture over-
lies the rudiment of an eye now totally useless and
lying deep down in the brain, but which was probably
functional in the earlier ancestors from which the
Tuatara sprang. The comparatively large size of this
aperture in the Primeval Salamanders suggests the
possibility that the central cyclopean eye may still
have been capable of receiving some impressions of
light, although it is probable that we should have to
go back to some long-lost piscine, or even invertebrate
ancestor, before we found it of any real use to its owner.

The majority of the Primeval Salamanders had their
back-bone composed of biconcave joints much like
those of ordinary fishes, or Fish-Lizards. In some of
the earlier and more primitive forms the body of each

PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS. 73

FIG. 21.— Skull of the Giant Primeval Salamander (Mastodonsaurus), one-
sixth natural size. S.Occ., supra-occipital bone ; Ep., epiotic ; P., parietal ;
Sq., squamosal ; S.Temp., supra-temporal ; Pt.F., post-frontal ; Pt.Orb., post-
orbital ; F., frontal; Pr.F., pre-frontal ; N., nasal; P. MX., pre-maxilla ;
Mx.Sup., maxilla; L., lachrymal; Ju., jugal; Q.Ju., quadra to- jugal. On
the right side of the skull (left side of Figure) the external sculptured layer
of bone is shown, which is omitted on the left in order to show the contour
of the individual bones. The large apertures are the eye-holes or orbits ; the
smaller shaded apertures in front, the nostrils ; and the smallest of all the
holes for the points of the tusks of the lower jaw. The projecting processes
at the top of the Figure are the occipital condyles. (After Fraas.)

74 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

joint of the back-bone was, however, composed of three
separate pieces ; and since a very similar peculiarity is
found in certain primitive fishes, we have again evi-
dence of the close affinity existing between these two
groups of animals.

The amphibians forming the group under considera-
tion made their earliest appearance, so far as our
present knowledge entitles us to speak, at the early
part of the great Coal Period. Thence they were
abundant in the Permian and Triassic (New Red
Sandstone) epochs, but in Europe appear to have
almost or entirely died out by the time of the
Oolite. In these early epochs they were widely dis-
tributed over the surface of the globe, their remains
having been obtained from all the great continents.
In size they varied from tiny creatures a few inches
in length to the giants with a skull of fully a yard in
length (Fig. 21). The perfect state of preservation in
which the skeletons of the smaller forms occur in the
fine-grained petroleum shales of the Continent shows
that in their earlier stages they were furnished with
external gills like modern Salamanders, thus indicating
that they underwent a similar metamorphosis.

At the time that the Primeval Salamanders were
so abundant, true reptiles were either totally absent
(Carboniferous period) or represented by comparatively
few forms (Permian), so that the role now taken by
the latter was then to a great extent played by the
former. We may thus consider that the place now
occupied by Crocodiles was then held by the Masto-

PRIMEVAL SALAMANDERS. 75

donsaur (Fig. 21), while many of the smaller forms
played the part of the modern Salamanders and
Lizards. Some other peculiar types developed ex-
tremely attenuated and elongated bodies, with the
partial or complete loss of their limbs, and thus
simulated the Blind- worms and Snakes of the present
day; so that it would appear that all the places in
Nature's economy now occupied by Eeptiles and Amphi-
bians, were as fully filled in those early epochs of the
earth's history by these primitive creeping creatures.

That the Salamanders of the present day are directly
descended from the Primeval Salamanders there can
be no reasonable doubt. Indeed, if we were to take
one of the Primitive Salamanders in which the skull,
instead of being of the crocodile-like shape of the one
shown in Fig. 21, were of the shape of a cheese-knife
(parabolic), and were to make slits in the roof of this
skull, to remove the sculpture from the same, and
likewise to get rid of the ventral armour, and to
slightly modify the structure of the back-bone, we
should have a creature almost or quite indistinguish-
able from the existing Giant Salamander. We have
already made allusion to the signs of a relationship ex-
hibited by the Primitive Salamanders to the Crocodiles
and the Fish-Lizards, but we have yet to mention
indications of a kinship of far deeper interest and
importance. In a later chapter reference will be made
to that group of extinct Secondary Eeptiles, known as
Anomodonts, which are so remarkable as exhibiting
unmistakable indications of affinity in respect to the

76 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

structure of their bony skeleton with mammals. Now,
if the reader will take the trouble to pay a visit to
the gallery of extinct reptiles in the Natural History
Museum at South Kensington, he will see displayed
at the west end the entire skeleton of an enormous
creature from South Africa known as the Pariasaur.
This skeleton shows that its owner occupied a kind of
half-way position between the Primitive Salamanders
and the Anomodont Eeptiles, so that it is somewhat
difficult to say to which group it should be referred,
it being not even known whether it had one or two
occipital condyles. This and other equally remarkable
fossil types render it, however, perfectly evident that
the Anomodont Keptiles have been directly derived
from the group forming the subject of this chapter;
and there is a very strong presumption that we shall
eventually be able to trace the origin of mammals to
creatures more or less intermediate between those two
groups; the Mammalian stock having probably branched
off before the two occipital condyles of the Amphibian
had merged into the single one of the Eeptile. We
may thus look with great veneration on the Primeval
Salamanders, as the probable representatives of the
ancestral stock of a large portion of the higher verte-
brates of the present day.

CHAPTEK V.

FISH-LIZARDS, OR SHORT-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS.

So long ago as the year 1814, when a fine example of
a large skull (now in the British Museum) was figured
by Sir Everard Home in the "Philosophical Trans-
actions" of the Eoyal Society, the occurrence in the
so-called Lias of the Dorsetshire coast of skeletons of
huge and uncouth reptiles, strangely unlike any of
their modern cousins, was well known. Five years
later the same writer described other specimens, and
proposed that these extinct Saurians should be known
as the Proteosaurus, or Primeval Lizard ; but about the
same time the late Mr. Konig, some time keeper of
the Geological Department of the British Museum,
affixed to the specimens of these Saurians under his
charge the name of Ichthyosaurus, or Fish-Lizard ; and
this name was adopted in the year 1821 by the late
Rev. Mr. Conybeare, who, with the late Dean Buckland,
did so much towards our knowledge of the structure
of these and other fossil Saurians.

We have said that the Fish-Lizards have left their
remains in those beds of rock which are called by the
quarrymen Lias, or Layers (the name being derived
from their banded and ribbon-like appearance); and

78 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

before proceeding to discuss the structure of these
creatures, a word is advisable as to the geological
position of this formation. The Lias comprises a thick
series of beds, usually of a bluish colour, lying very low
down in that enormous series of rocks known as the
Secondary system, of which the Chalk is the topmost
member, while the middle part of the system is formed
by the great series of Oolites and their accompanying
clays. The Secondary system itself, it need hardly be
said, lies upon the upper part of the Primary system,
as represented by the Coal-Measures ; while it is suc-
ceeded by the overlying deposits of the Tertiary system.
In regard to the upper parts of the latter system, it
may be possible to make some more or less vague ap-
proximation in terms of thousands of years as to their
real age, but in the Secondary period any such approxi-
mation is totally impossible, and we can only reckon the
age of the various beds by geological periods, as repre-
sented by the vertical thickness of overlying rock.
Now, since the Chalk may exceed 1000 feet in thick-
ness, and there are several deposits of equal bulk be-
tween this and the Lias, some faint idea may be thereby
conveyed of the vast lapse of time by which we are
separated from that period when the mud of the Lias
was deposited in the shallow seas of what is now Eng-
land. The Fish-Lizards were, however, by no means
confined to this remote Liassic period, since they
also occur not only in the underlying New Red Sand-
stone, or Triassic series, which forms the very base of
the Secondary system, but likewise lived on through

FISH-LIZARDS. 79

the period of the

Oolites and Chalk,

till they finally died

out, so far as we are

aware, with the close

of the Chalk period.

The Fish - Lizards

are, therefore, char-

acteristic of the

Secondary period, so

that when we pick myjm^

up one of the joints j

of their backbones

(of which more

anon), we know that Hv!&<9 ^SlS

it must have come

from some part of

that great system,

even though we find

it embedded in the

gravels lying above

the Tertiary system.

One other impor- 11^H "(

tant point remains 0

to be mentioned in

connection with the

beds in which the

remains of these

Fish-Lizards occur ;

and this is, that they

So ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

are all deposits formed by the sea, so that we are led
to conclude that these saurians were of marine habits.
Again, it may be observed that whereas in the Lias the
remains of the Fish-Lizards are usually found in the
condition of more or less nearly complete skeletons, with
every bone but little shifted from its natural position ;
in the overlying rocks the skeletons are dislocated and
often imperfect. Although the latter condition renders
us sometimes unable to restore the complete skeleton
of these later forms, yet it has the compensating
advantage that we are able to handle and examine the
individual bones in a manner which is generally quite
impossible with the skeletons from the Lias, where the
bones are often distorted and flattened by pressure.

We are now in a position to consider a few of the
more prominent features in the structure of these
primeval saurians, of which the whole organisation is
better known than that of most of the other reptiles of
the same epochs. In the woodcut (Fig. 17, p. 54) we give
a copy of Sir Kichard Owen's restoration of the entire
skeleton, together with a conjectural outline of the
contour of the body when clothed with flesh and skin.
It will be seen from this that the contour of the entire
animal was of a whale-like type; there being no
distinct neck, the body gradually passing into the tail,
and the two pairs of limbs forming paddles, or flippers,
adapted, like those of a turtle, for propelling the body
through the water, and perhaps also permitting their
owner to crawl awkwardly on the sea-shore in the
same manner as the turtle does. From the circum-

FISH-LIZARDS.

Si

stance that in the skeletons from the Lias (Fig. 22)
the tail is nearly always broken at some distance from
its extremity, it has been suggested that the tail was
furnished with a terminal fin, after the fashion of the
" flukes " of the Whales. In some instances the fine-
grained Lias mud has even preserved traces of the

FIG. 23.— Part of one of the fore-paddles of a small Fish-Lizard from the Lias of
Barrow-on-Soar. hu, bone of upper arm ; r, it, bones of fore-arm ; the other
letters indicate the bones of the wrist, below which are the bones of the
fingers.

outer surface of the skin of the Fish-Lizards, and we
learn from this, and also from the absence of any traces
of bony plates like those found in the skin of crocodiles,
that the skin of these saurians was quite naked, and
are thus shown another feature in which they resemble
whales. Moreover, in certain very rare instances, as is

F

82 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

shown in the beautiful example represented in Fig. 23,
the contour of the soft parts of the paddles is accurately
delineated in the stony matrix. We thus see that the
fleshy part of the paddle formed but a comparatively
narrow band in advance of the bony framework on the
front border of the fin (right side of Figure) ; but on
the opposite or hinder border (left side of Figure) we
find the soft parts forming a broad fin-like expansion,
admirably adapted to obtain the full advantage of the
stroke of the limb in swimming.

As we are on the subject of the paddles, we may
take the opportunity of noticing the very remarkable
structure of their bony framework, which is quite un-
like that found in any other animal, although evidently
only a modification of the same ground-plan. In most
of the higher vertebrates, as in man, the skeleton of
the arm, or fore-limb, presents the following features :
— The upper-arm has one long single bone; in the
fore-arm there are two slender bones lying side by side
and separated by an interval ; the wrist has two rows
of small cuboidal bones ; while the limb terminates in
five fingers, of which, with the exception of the thumb,
each has three long-bones,* which are respectively
separated from the wrist by a similar but somewhat
longer bone. Turning to the fore paddle of the Fish-
Lizard (Fig. 23), we easily recognise in the topmost
bone (hu) the single bone of the upper- arm, although
this has become much shorter and thicker than is

* In living reptiles the number of these bones differs in the indi-
vidual fingers, but never exceeds three in the second finger.

FISH-LIZARDS. 83

usually the case. In the two short and angulated
bones, marked r and u, it is more difficult to recognise
the representatives of the long-bones of the fore-arm ;
but that they really are their representatives is at
once shown by their position. Passing over the bones
of the wrist, we find that the bones corresponding to
those of the fingers, instead of being elongated and
limited to three in each of the five fingers, are poly-
gonal in contour, and arranged in as many as seven
or eight longitudinal rows, while those of each finger
(as shown in Fig. 17) are exceedingly numerous. The
whole structure forms, in fact, a complete bony pave-
ment, which in the living animal must have been
perfectly supple, and thus have formed one of the
most efficient and powerful swimming organs known
in the whole animal kingdom. The paddles of the
Whales resemble those of the Fish-Lizards in the great
number of bones in each finger, but they differ in that
the number of the fingers themselves does not exceed
the universal five.

In the few words that we can devote to the skull of
the Fish-Lizard, we may observe that the muzzle was
produced into a more or less elongated beak (Figs. 17,
22), while the nostrils were placed close to the eye,
and the soft parts of the latter were strengthened with
a ring of bony plates surrounding the iris and pupil,
as is the case in birds. The teeth were large and
pointed, and implanted in a deep groove in the jaws.
Their pointed crowns at once tell us that the Fish-
Lizards were creatures of carnivorous habits, preying

84 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

on other inhabitants of the Secondary seas. Curiously
enough, in the approximation of the nostrils to the
eyes, and also in their sharply pointed teeth, the Fish-
Lizards present further resemblances to the Whales, —
resemblances which we may probably explain by the
similar conditions of life of these two widely different
groups of animals.

Before leaving this brief notice of the anatomy of
these saurians, a few words must be said as to the
structure of the back-bone or vertebral column. It
will be seen from Fig. 24 that the whole of this
column forms a continuous series, tapering at the two
extremities ; and the various segments, or vertebrae, of
the different regions of this column are so alike that it
requires some practice to distinguish them. As is well
known, each vertebral segment in all the vertebrate
animals consists of an upper arch enclosing the spinal
marrow/and of a lower sub-cylindrical body supporting
the arch and underlying the marrow. As a rule, the
body and the arch are more or less firmly united
together, but in the Fish-Lizards they remain quite
separate throughout life. Further, the body of each
vertebra (Fig. 24) forms a disk, which is deeply con-
cave at the two extremities, like the vertebra of a fish,
and quite different from those of most living reptiles,
in which the bodies of the vertebrae articulate with one
another by a ball-and-socket joint. Another peculiarity
of the back-bone of the Fish-Lizards is in the mode of
attachment of the ribs. Thus each rib terminates in a
fork, of which the two prongs articulate with the two

FISH-LIZARDS. 85

knob-like surfaces on the side of the body of each
vertebra, as shown in Fig. 24.

Some of the species of Fish-Lizards attained a length
of from thirty to forty feet, and were thus truly Levia-
thans of the deep.

The result, then, of our survey of the chief structural
peculiarities of these extinct saurians is to show that
they were Whale-like marine reptiles of carnivorous
habits, with a naked body, provided with four paddles,

FIG. 24.— Side and end views of the body of one of the segments of the back-bone
of a small Fish-Lizard, a, b, Surfaces for the attachment of the rib.

and probably with a tail fin, and that they had fish-
like vertebra*, and a long, toothed beak to the skull.
In certain American representatives of the group the
jaws were, however, totally unprovided with teeth ;
and in these and allied types from the Oolites of
England a third bone articulated with the bone of the
upper-arm (hu of Fig. 23), thus making the structure of
the paddle still more peculiar. How these toothless
Fish-Lizards captured and held their prey is not very

86 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

easy to understand ; but it is possible that instead of
living on hard mail-clad fishes like their toothed cousins
of the Lias, their food may have been of a softer nature,
such as cuttle-fishes.

In stating that the Fish-Lizards of the Lias subsisted
largely on the mail-clad " Ganoid " fishes of the same
epoch we may perhaps be thought to be drawing upon
our imagination. This, however, is not the case, since
we frequently find the whole contents of the stomach
of these reptiles preserved within the cavity of their
ribs, thereby showing that their food was composed not
only of these fishes, but also of young individuals of
their own genus. In very rare cases, moreover, there
are found within the body-cavity of large individuals
very small skeletons of other Fish-Lizards (Fig. 22) ; and
since these young skeletons are always entire and be-
long to the same species as the one within whose body
they are enclosed, it has been concluded that some
Fish-Lizards brought forth their young in a living con-
dition. This conclusion is certainly one of the most
startling and unexpected results which has rewarded
the students of this branch of palaeontology.

Whether, when the name of Fish-Lizards was first
given to these saurians, it was in the mind of its author
that they were really related to fishes, cannot now be
certainly known. It has, however, been subsequently
suggested that these reptiles are the direct descendants
of fishes ; but since, like Whales, they breathed air by
means of lungs, a recent writer has pointed out that if
such descent were really the case it is almost certain

FISH-LIZARDS. 87

that the Fish-Lizards would have continued to breathe
air by means of gills, after the manner of fishes.
And it is, therefore, considered probable that these
saurians are the descendants of still earlier land rep-
tiles ; in which respect they again present another re-
semblance to Whales, which appear to have been
derived from land animals probably more or less nearly
allied to the hoofed mammals. If, now, we look back
and endeavour to fix upon the ancestral type of crea-
ture from which the Fish-Lizards have probably been
derived, we are led to select the Primeval Salamanders
described in the fourth chapter as the most likely
claimants to this position. In treating of that group
we have mentioned the peculiar labyrinth-like internal
structure of their teeth, from which the name of Labyrin-
thodonts has been derived. Now it is very suggestive
that the teeth of most species of Fish-Lizards retain
traces of this very remarkable labyrinthic structure ;
and since, moreover, the skulls of these saurians have
certain peculiar features also found in those of the
Labyrinthodonts, while the structure of the backbone
is very similar in the two groups, it seems highly pro-
bable that the Fish-Lizards have been directly derived
from ancient reptiles more or less closely allied to the
Labyrinthodonts, if not from that group itself; and
that as they gradually became more completely aqua-
tic their limbs were developed into the very complex
paddles of the typical forms.

In conclusion, we have already pointed out several
remarkable resemblances between the ancient Fish-

88 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Lizards and the modern Whales, and have regarded such
resemblances as due to their similar mode of life. The
Fish-Lizards may, indeed, be considered to have occupied
that place in the Secondary period which is now held
by the Whales ; and it is curious to consider why these
saurian devastators of the deep should have died out
at the close of the Secondary period, to be succeeded
during the Tertiary by the mammalian Whales.

CHAPTEK VI.

PLESIOSAURS, OR LONG-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS.

IN the last chapter we gave a description of the re-
mains of those remarkable marine reptiles from the
Secondary rocks known as Fish-Lizards, or Short-
decked Sea-Lizards ; the general geological relations
of the rocks in which their remains occur being there
noticed in such a manner that any further allusion to
them would be superfluous. The Fish-Lizards were,
however, by no means the only reptilian inhabitants of
those ancient seas in which the Secondary rocks were
deposited. On the contrary, they were accompanied by
another group of marine reptiles, equally well adapted
for a marine life, but presenting such a totally different
type of structure that no one can have any difficulty in
distinguishing between the two. So different, indeed,
are the skeletons of these two groups of creatures, that
with very little instruction every person of ordinary
ability ought at once to be able to say to which of the
two any single bone he may pick up should be referred.
Since the most striking feature in the skeleton of these
reptiles, and also one whereby they are very broadly
distinguished from the Fish-Lizards, is the great length

90 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of the neck (Fig. 25), they may be conveniently known
as Long-Necked Sea-Lizards. Should, however, any of
our readers have a fancy for a shorter and more tech-
nical term, there is one ready to his hand in the name
Plesiosaur. Speaking of the long neck of these reptiles
reminds the writer of an answer he received, when
examiner at the Calcutta University, from a Bengali, in
reply to a question as to the chief points of difference
between a Fish-Lizard, or Ichthyosaur, and a Plesiosaur.
The misguided student, apparently froni having read
that portions of the fossilised integuments of the Ich-
thyosaurs had been obtained, answered the question by
stating that Ichthyosaurs were reptiles with a skin,
but without a neck, while Plesiosaurs had a neck but
no skin.

Like the Fish-Lizards, the Long-Necked Sea-Lizards
lived throughout the whole of the Secondary period.
Their skeletons, although less common than those of
the Fish- Lizards, are preserved in an equally fine state
of preservation in the Lias clays of Lyme-Ptegis and
Whitby. Several of the species from the Lias are of
comparatively small dimensions, not attaining a length
of more than some 8 or 10 feet ; but other kinds, more
especially those found in the higher Oolitic and Cre-
taceous rocks, were of enormous dimensions, reaching
to a length of 40 feet.

Our earliest knowledge of these strange creatures
was mainly derived from the observations of Cony-
beare and Buckland, made in the earlier decades of
the present century. So monstrous and strange did

LONG-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS. 91

the skeletons of these reptiles appear to those early
pioneers in the study of fossil animals, that they were
not inaptly compared to a snake threaded through the
body of a turtle.

The easiest manner in which we may gain a general
idea of the structure of these reptiles will be by com-
paring them with the Fish-Lizards. Apart from the
great difference in the length of the neck, one of the
most striking points of distinction between the Fish-
Lizards and the Long-Necked Lizards is to be found
in the , structure of their paddles. Thus, it will be
remembered, in the former group the bone of the arm
was extremely short, while all the bones of the fore-
arm, wrist, and fingers were modified into a polygonal
shape, and articulated together so as to convert the
whole framework of the limb into a solid pavement-
like structure.

In the Long-Necked Lizards, on the other hand, the
arm bone (as seen in Fig. 25) is comparatively long,
and shaped somewhat like a flattened club ; while the
bones of the fore-arm (Fig. 26), although remarkably
short and flat, are by no means so short as they are in
the Fish-Lizards. The greatest difference in the struc-
ture of the paddle is, however, to be found in the form
of the bones of the fingers (Fig. 25), which, in place
of being polygonal, are long and slender like those of
ordinary reptiles. It is true, indeed, that the number
of bones in each finger is considerably greater than in
living reptiles, but the number of the fingers them-
selves does not exceed the normal five, and the bones

92 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of each finger are entirely disconnected from those of
the adjacent fingers. The above essential differences
in the structure of the paddles of the Long-Necked
Lizards from those of the Fish- Lizards will be apparent
by comparing Figs. 25 and 26 with Fig. 23. It was
probably on account of the structure of the paddles,
which departs less from the ordinary type than is the
case with the Fish-Lizards, that Mr. Conybeare was
led to propose the name Plesiosaur, derived from the
Greek plesios, nearer, and sauros, a lizard.

Equally remarkable differences occur in the form
and arrangement of the bones of the shoulder and
haunches, but since their illustration would require a
long detailed description, we shall pass them by, only
mentioning that in the Long-Necked Lizards they
form very large plate-like expansions on the lower
aspect of the body.

A glance at the figures of the two creatures will at
once show a great difference in the relative size of
their skulls; that of the Long-Necked Lizard being
comparatively short and stout, and thus adapted to be
supported and rapidly moved by the long and slender
neck. Important differences are also found in the form
and arrangement of the individual bones composing
the skulls, but it will suffice on this occasion to men-
tion that the Long-Necked Lizards differ from their
short-necked contemporaries by the absence of a ring
of bony plates within the eye-ball,* and also by the
circumstance that their long and sharp teeth are im-

* In Fis^. 22 in the chapter on Fish-Lizards.

LONG-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS.

93

planted in distinct soo
kets, instead of being
arranged in a continu-
ous open groove. In
the latter respect the
creatures under con-
sideration resemble cro-
codiles, and no other
existing reptiles.

In the chapter on
Fish-Lizards a woodcut
(Fig. 24) of one of the
joints of the back-bone,
or vertebra, shows that
these are very short
doubly -concave disks,
and in the region of the
back carry two small
facets on their sides,
with which the forked
heads of the ribs are
articulated. Moreover,
the upper part of each
vertebra, forming the
arch through which the
spinal marrow runs, is
completely separated
from the body of the
vertebra (the only part
shown in the figure),

94

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and takes no sort of share in supporting the ribs. If,
however, we have the opportunity of examining one of
the joints of the back-bone of a Long-Necked Lizard
taken from the region of the back, we shall find a
very different state of things. Thus, in the first place,
the body of the vertebra, although
still more or less cupped at both
ends, in most cases is considerably
longer, so as to form a cylinder rather
than a disk. Then, again, the upper
arch for the spinal marrow is gene-
rally more or less closely united with
the body of the vertebra, so that the
whole structure forms one piece.
Moreover, the sides of the body are
quite smooth, having no trace of
facets for the support of the ribs.
FIG. 26. -Part of the fore- The latter are, indeed, attached to

paddle of along-Necked - . . , . .

Lizard, hu, lower half long horizontal prOCCSSCS JUttlllg OUt

at

upper row of wrist- arch an(j

bones.

the sides of the

precisely similar to

•

those with which we are all familiar
when carving a sirloin of beef at table. It will be
obvious from the foregoing that if we looked inside
the cavity of the body of a Long-Necked Lizard, we
should find that the whole of the bodies of the joints
of the back-bone projected into the cavity; whereas
it will be equally evident that in the Fish-Lizards only
the lower part of such joints so projected.

In saying that the sides of the bodies of the verte-

LONG-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS. 95

bme of the reptiles under consideration have no facets
for ribs, the reader should bear in mind that this
applies only to the region of the back, since the small
ribs which are found in the necks of these creatures
are articulated with the sides of the bodies of the
vertebrae.

In the general structure of the back-bone and ribs
the Long-Necked Lizards come nearer to crocodiles
than to any other existing reptiles.

Such, then, are the chief features of the bony frame-
work of these curious reptiles. The absence of any
trace of bony plates, like those found in the skin of
the crocodiles, leads to the conclusion that the bodies
of the Long-Necked Lizards were clothed with a
smooth skin like that of porpoises. In regard to the
habits of the Plesiosaur, we cannot do better than
quote the words of Mr. Conybeare, who says : " That
it was aquatic, is evident from the form of its paddles ;
that it was marine is almost equally so, from the
remains with which it is universally associated ; that
it may have occasionally visited the shore, the resem-
blance of its extremities to those of the turtle may
lead us to conjecture ; its motion must, however, have
been very awkward on land ; its long neck must have
impeded its progress through the water; thus pre-
senting a striking contrast to the organisation which
so admirably fits the Ichthyosaur [Fish-Lizard] to cut
through the waves. May it not, therefore, be con-
cluded (since, in addition to these circumstances, its
respiration must have required frequent access to the

96 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

air) that it swam upon or near the surface ; arching
back its long neck like the swan, and occasionally
darting it down at the fish which happened to float
within its reach ? It may, perhaps, have lurked in
shoal-water along the coast, concealed among the sea-
weed; and, raising its nostrils to a level with the
surface from a considerable depth, may have found a
secure retreat from the assaults of dangerous enemies ;
while the length and flexibility of its neck may have
compensated for the want of strength in its jaws, and
its incapacity for swift motion through the water, by
the suddenness and agility of the attack which they
enabled it to make on every animal fitted for its prey
which came within its reach."

Nothing that has been discovered since the date
when the above passage was penned can suggest
any more probable interpretation of the habits of
these creatures.

The larger species found in the Lias attained a
length of about 20 feet ; but, as is so generally the
case, we find the size of the species gradually increas-
ing as we ascend in the geological scale, the culmina-
tion being reached in the period of the chalk, when,
both in Europe and North America, we meet with
species reaching to the enormous length of 40 feet,
and the joints of whose backbone measured as much
as 6 inches in diameter. These terrible creatures
must indeed have been dragons of the deep, with
a far more strange appearance than any of those
imagined in fable.

LONG-NECKED SEA-LIZARDS. 97

The general dimensions, although perhaps not the
absolute length, of these monsters were, however,
greatly exceeded by those of a closely allied group
of marine reptiles whose remains occur in the Oxford
and Kimeridge clays of the great Oolitic series of
rocks. These creatures, which are known by the name
of Pliosaurs, although agreeing with the Long-Necked
Lizards in the structure of their paddles and back-
bone, differ very widely from them in having enormous
heads, for the support of which a short and thick neck
is, of course, absolutely essential. A skull of one of
these giants found on the Dorsetshire coast and exhi-
bited in the Natural History Museum, is nearly 6 feet
in length ; while a hind paddle in the Dorset Museum
measures upwards of 6J feet, of which no less than
37 inches is taken up by the thigh-bone alone. The
enormous biting power and destructive habits of these
creatures is evidenced by their teeth, which are not
unfrequently found in the Kimeridge clay, and one
specimen of which is upwards of a foot in length from
the tip of the crown to the base of the root. These
teeth are readily distinguished from those of all other
reptiles, not only by their huge size, but also by the
triangular form assumed by their crowns ; one surface
of the triangle being usually nearly smooth, while the
other two are ornamented with vertical ridges.

We may pretty safely assume that in the ancient
seas of the Oolitic period the Pliosaurs acted the same
part as is played by the ferocious Grampuses in those
of the present day.

9& ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Turning from these latest modifications into which
the Long-Necked Lizards were finally developed, and
looking back at the earliest known representatives of
the group, we find in the strata lying below the Lias,
and thus forming the very base of the Secondary rock-
series, the remains of a number of more or less closely
allied forms, the largest of which did not exceed a
yard in length. These small reptiles were evidently
ancestral types of the larger species found in the Lias,
but they exhibit certain structural features clearly
indicating that they were in great part of terrestrial
or fresh-water habits, and their whole organisation
departs less widely from the general reptilian type
than is the case with their successors in time. Thus
we reach the conclusion that the Long-Necked Lizards,
like the Fish-Lizards, were in all probability descended
from small land reptiles, and have been gradually
more and more modified for the exigencies of a purely
marine life. In this respect, therefore, these ancient
creatures present a precise analogy to the Whales and
Porpoises of to-day.

CHAPTEE VII.

TORTOISES AND TURTLES.

To many of us, the chief idea connected with turtles
is that they are used to make turtle- soup ; while in
regard to tortoises our acquaintance is often limited
to seeing a barrow-load of unfortunate specimens
hawked about the streets, or to an individual or two
kept in our own or a friend's garden, as a very un-
sociable kind of pet. We are also acquainted with
these creatures loj means of tortoise-shell, either in
the form of combs or various ornamental articles;
although the exact nature of this commodity — which,
by the way, conies from turtles and not from tortoises
• — is frequently but very imperfectly known. Many
people, indeed, have more or less hazy ideas as to what
kind of animals tortoises and turtles really are. Thus,
according to Punch, railway companies were wont to
classify tortoises as insects ; and the writer well recol-
lects that during his undergraduate days his landlady
purchased an unfortunate tortoise to take the place of
a deceased hedgehog in the kitchen, for the purpose
of eating black-beetles, and was immensely astonished
when told that the tortoise was a vegetable feeder and
had no sort of kinship with the hedgehog.

99

zoo ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Tortoises and turtles, or, as it is frequently con-
venient to call them, Chelonians (from the Greek name
of one species), are, however, in reality a very remark-
able group, or order, of the great class of Eeptiles ;
and their structure is so peculiar and interesting that
a short glance at some of their chief features cannot
fail to be instructive. We are, indeed, accustomed to
regard many extinct groups of reptiles, like the Fish-
Lizards,* as more bizarre and strange than any which
now inhabit the globe ; but if we were to be made
acquainted for the first time with tortoises from their
fossil remains, we should certainly consider them as
far more extraordinary than any other types; and it
is highly probable that the palaeontologist who first
made known such a remarkable type of reptilian
structure would be charged with* having created a
totally impossible monster.

The most striking and peculiar feature about tortoises
and turtles is the more or less complete bony shell
with which their body is protected, on, account of
which they are noticed in the chapter on " Mail- Clad
Animals." The accompanying woodcut (Fig. 27) ex-
hibits a typical Chelonian, as exemplified by a land-
tortoise. In this creature we see a fully developed
bony shell, within which the head, limbs, and tail can
be retracted, so as to afford a perfect protection for
the entire animal. We have said that the shell of the
tortoise is a bony one ; but it will probably be at once
objected that the " tortoise-shell " of commerce is about

* See Chapter V.

TORTOISES AND TURTLES.

101

as unlike bone as it can well be. This apparent dis-
crepancy can, however, be very readily explained. In
a living tortoise, as is
well shown in Fig. 27,
the outer surface of
the shell is completely
covered over with a
series of large shield-
like horny plates, of
which there is one
row down the middle
of the back, and a
lateral row on either
side of this middle one ;
externally to which we
have a series of rnar-
ginal shields, forming
the border of the
upper half of the shell.
Similar horny shields
also cover the lower
part of the shell, which
we shall notice shortly.
The solid bony shell
underlies these horny
shields; the relations
of the horny and bony
constituents of the protecting shell being shown
in Fig. 28, where the outer horny shields have
been stripped off, leaving distinct grooves on the

102 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

underlying bones at the lines of junction with one
another. Now it is these horny shields which form
the " tortoise-shell " of commerce ; in the land-tortoises
they are, indeed, very thin, and of no economical value,
but in one of the marine turtles, known as the Hawks-
bill, they become greatly thickened, and furnish the
well-known "tortoise-shell," so remarkable for its
translucency and the beautiful coloration formed by
the mottled blending of a full reddish brown with a
lemon yellow. It will be noticed from Fig. 27 that in
the land-tortoises these horny shields have their edges
in apposition ; but in the young of the Hawksbill
turtle they overlap one another like the slates on a
roof, although in the adult they become united by their
edges in the same manner as in the tortoises.

Turning once more to Fig. 27, it will be seen, as
we have already incidentally mentioned, that the shell
consists of an upper vaulted portion covering the sides
and back, which is technically known as the carapace ;
and also of a flattened lower plate protecting the chest
and abdomen, to which the term plastron, or breast-
plate, is applied. The carapace and the plastron are
usually connected together by a comparatively short
bony bridge, at the extremities of which are the
notches for the fore and hind limbs, as is well shown
in Fig. 27. In the land- tortoises this union between
the carapace and plastron is complete; but in the
marine-turtles, and also in some freshwater tortoises,
there is no such bony union between the upper and
lower portions of the shell. The characters of the

TORTOISES AND TURTLES.

103

plastron of the land-tortoises are shown in Fig. 29,
from which it will be seen that there are six pairs of
symmetrical horny shields, arranged on either side of

FIG. 29.— The middle and left side of the
lower shell, or plastron, of a Land-
Tortoise.

IG. 28.— The right half of the upper
shell, or carapace, of a Tortoise,
with the horny shields removed.
The thick black lines show the
boundaries of the horny shields,
while the zigzag lines indicate the
divisions between the underlying
bony elements of the shell.

the middle line of the shell. This type of plastron is
characteristic of nearly all the tortoises of the northern
hemisphere ; but in a smaller group, now confined to

io4 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the southern hemisphere, there is an additional un-
paired shield (Fig. 30, i, gu) dividing the first or gular
(gu) shields of the plastron. This additional, or inter-
gular, shield, as it is termed, is very frequently of a
battledore shape, as in Fig. 30.

In regard to the bones composing the upper shell,
or carapace, it will be observed, from Fig. 28, that
although they by no means correspond in contour
with the overlying horny shields, yet that a decided
general similarity of arrangement obtains between the
two series. Thus there is a single middle row of bones
corresponding to the middle row of horny shields,
although the bones are smaller and more numerous
than the shields. Similarly there is a series of lateral
bones on either side of the middle row ; while in like
manner the border of the carapace is formed of a series
of marginal bones corresponding very closely with the
marginal horny shields. The bones of the middle
series of the carapace are severally attached to the
summits of the spines of the back-bone, or vertebrae ;
while the lateral bones are nothing more than large
expanded plates lying on the ribs, to which they are
so completely welded that they are generally regarded
as part of the same bone.

From this brief glance at the structure of the
Chelonian shell, we are enabled to understand one of
the most peculiar features of the organisation of these
remarkable reptiles. This peculiarity is, that whereas
the shoulder-blade in all other animals lies entirely on
the outer side of the ribs, in the tortoises and turtles

TORTOISES AND TURTLES.

105

it is situated within the cavity enclosed by the ribs and
shell. Similarly the haunch-bones, which in all other
living animals lie close to the outer surface of the body,
are likewise shifted within the cavity of the ribs and
shell. To reach the shoulder-blades and haunch-bones
the bones of the arm and leg are bent in a manner
quite peculiar to this group of reptiles, so that they
are readily recognised when found in a fossil state.
We should, however, mention that the above peculiar

FIG. 30.— The front portion of the plastron of a Freshwater-Tortoise of the
Southern Hemisphere, with the horny shieldsj removed. The thick lines
indicate the boundaries of the horny shields.

inside -out arrangement is only found in the adult con-
dition ; extremely young tortoises having the shoulder-
blades and haunch-bones situated respectively in front
of the first, and behind the last rib, and being gradually
grown over by the plates developed upon these ribs.

One other peculiarity in the bony structure of the
group still remains to be mentioned. It is probably
well known to our readers that ordinary reptiles —
such as crocodiles and lizards — are furnished with
well-developed teeth, which are frequently of great

io6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

size. In all Chelonians, on the contrary, teeth are
totally wanting, and their function is consequently
performed by the margins of the jaws, which form
sharp cutting-edges, and are ensheathed with a coating
of thick horn. This total absence of teeth is well
shown in Fig. 27, and still better in Fig. 31, where the
bones of the skull are represented with the flesh and
skin removed. Another remarkable peculiarity of the
Chelonian skull is found in the circumstance that the
two sides of the lower jaw are firmly united together
by bone at the chin, instead of being more or less
completely separated, as in all other living reptiles.
A third peculiarity is the development of the hinder
extremity of the skull into a long spine-like process
(Fig. 31, 0), which gives a very characteristic contour
to this part. The whole of the skull is covered over
with horny shields (Fig. 27) in the living animal ; so
that in this respect the structure of the skull cor-
responds exactly with that of the shell.

In the entire absence of teeth, coupled with the
horny sheathing of the jaw, and the solid union of the
two bones of the lower jaw at the chin, tortoises
resemble birds. Many, or perhaps all, of the birds
of the Secondary geological epoch were, however, pro-
vided with a complete set of teeth, and it is there-
fore highly probable that we shall some day find the
fossil remains of extinct tortoises which were also
furnished with these useful implements, since there
appears to have been a tendency in many groups of
animals, and more especially in birds and their near

TORTOISES AND TURTLES.

107

relations the reptiles, to lose their teeth. Thus as
already mentioned, the Fish-Lizards of the Cretaceous
rocks of the United States are all characterised by the
absence of teeth ; and, as we shall subsequently have
occasion to notice, a similar condition obtains in the
Pterodactyles, or flying reptiles of the same deposits,
by which feature they are widely distinguished from
their Old World allies.

All the fossil tortoises and turtles at present known

f

FIG. 31.— Left side of the skull of a Land-Tortoise, with the lower jaw displaced.
in, pm, upper jaw ; s, cheek-bone ; t, cavity of ear ; /, pf, bones over the eye
and nose-cavity ; p, hollow of the temples ; o, posterior spine.

to us agree with existing types in the absence of teeth,
as well as in the general characters of the shell ; and
we have at present (on the assumption that some mode
of evolution is the true explanation of the mutual
relationships of the different groups of animals) no
evidence to connect the Chelonians very closely with
any other type of reptiles. It is, however, quite

io8 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

probable that the bony plastron of the tortoises is an
extreme development of the peculiar system of so-
called abdominal ribs found on the lower surface of
the body in crocodiles and many extinct groups of
reptiles, such as the Fish-Lizards and Plesiosaurs ; and
it appears that the nearest allies of the Chelonians are
to be found in the latter group.

Chelonians vary greatly in their habits, and the
nature of their food. Thus the land- tortoises, as their
name implies, are terrestrial, although all of them can
swim ; while some closely allied types are aquatic.
The feet of the former are provided with strong claws,
and their food consists exclusively of vegetables, of
whicli they consume a vast amount. The pond-tortoise
of Southern Europe, which, with the exception of the
common Grecian land-tortoise, is the only European
representative of the group, has, however, the feet
webbed, and subsists on animal substances, such as
worms. Many of the Indian water-tortoises are also
carnivorous; this being especially the case with the
well-known soft-tortoises of the rivers of the warmer
parts of the globe. In those reptiles the shell is not
provided with horny shields, but has the outer surface
of the bones ornamented with a beautiful net -like
sculpture, and merely covered with a thin skin. In
the turtles, again, which are of marine habits, although
they resort to the shore to deposit their eggs, the limbs
have all the toes enclosed in a common scaly integu-
ment, so as to form paddles admirably adapted for
swimming organs. While, however, the edible Green-

TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 109

turtle is of strictly herbivorous habits, the fierce
Hawksbill is as purely carnivorous. Another very
remarkable group of marine Chelonians is now repre-
sented only by the so-called Leathery-turtle, which
differs from all other living forms in that the shell is
represented only by a carapace composed of a number
of small bones closely joined together, and forming a
mosaic-like structure which is totally unconnected with
the ribs. The living leathery-turtle attains a length
of about five feet; but some allied fossil forms are
estimated to have been as much as ten feet in length,
and were thus veritable aquatic giants. The largest
existing representatives of the true tortoises are, or
were recently, found in certain islands of the Indian
Ocean, and also in the well-known Galapagos (or
Tortoise) Islands lying off the coast of South America.
A magnificent series of these giant land- tortoises is
now exhibited in the Natural History Museum at
South Kensington. Many of these huge creatures,
which have in some cases been completely extermi-
nated by sailors, could readily walk off with a man
seated on their back ; and in the larger forms the
length of the shell in a straight line is upwards of four
feet. These dimensions were, however, vastly exceeded
by certain fossil species found both in Northern India,
the south of France, and elsewhere ; the shells of some
of these monsters attaining a length of six feet. The
late Dr. Falconer, who was disposed to consider that
the size was considerably greater than this, has indeed
suggested that some of these huge tortoises may have

no ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

lived on in India into the human period, and thus have
given rise to the old Sanscrit legend that the earth
was supported by a gigantic elephant standing upon
the back of a still more gigantic tortoise ; the legend
being, however, discreetly silent as to what constituted
the support for the tortoise.

In conclusion, we may say a few words as to the
classification of Ohelonians, leaving, however, out of
consideration the leathery-turtle and its allies, in
regard to the position of which there has been a con-
siderable amount of discussion. Ordinary Chelonians
are readily divided into two great groups, according
to the manner in which the head is retracted within
the shell. Thus, in the land- tortoises (Fig. 27) and
their allies, the head is drawn directly within the
margin of the shell by the bending of the neck in an
S-like manner in a vertical plane. The plastron of
this group is generally characterised by the absence
of the unpaired intergular shield (Fig. 29), so that the
two gular shields meet in the middle line. This
group, as we have already mentioned, includes, with
the exception of the soft tortoises, all the tortoises of
the Northern Hemisphere and also the marine-turtles ;
but it is by no means confined to this hemisphere,
although totally wanting in Australia. The name
Cryptodirans, or hidden-necked tortoises, is applied
to the members of this group. In the second great
group, on the other hand, the neck is bent sideways,
so that the head, when retracted, lies on one side of
the front aperture of the shell near to one of the legs j

TOKTOISES AND TURTLES. in

and the presence of an intergular shield in the plastron
(Fig. 30) is absolutely characteristic. The members
of this group are termed Pleurodirans, or side-necked
tortoises, and, as we have said, are now exclusively
confined to the Southern Hemisphere, and are the only
Chelonians met with in Australia. In former epochs
this group was, however, much more widely distributed,
so that we may probably conclude that the Pleuro-
dirans are an older and less specialised type than the
Cryptodirans. A very remarkable gigantic fossil tor-
toise from Queensland and Lord Howe Island, which
may probably be regarded as a member of the Pleuro-
diran section, is remarkable for having large horn-like
prominences on the skull, and also for the bony rings
with which the tail was protected, somewhat after the
fashion of the Glyptodont Mammals (see page 16).
Finally, the soft tortoises form a third group, allied
to the Cryptodirans in the mode of retraction of the
head, but distinguished by certain peculiarities in the
structure of the skull and shell. From the presence
of only three claws on the feet of the typical forms,
this group is technically termed the Trionychoidea ;
and with it we bring to a close our remarks on
tortoises.

CHAPTER VIII.

GIANT LAND REPTILES, OR DINOSAURS.

THE traveller from London to Hastings, by way of the
South-Eastern Railway, on leaving the chalk hills of
the North Downs, some short distance to the north of
Sevenoaks, enters suddenly on a more open district,
known as the Weald of Kent and Sussex. This district
presents many remarkable and peculiar features, one
of the most striking being the great prevalence of
oak-trees in those parts having a clayey soil ; and the
traveller will not fail to notice that, in place of the
chalk which he has just left, all the rocks of the
district consist of alternations of beds of clay, sand,
and sandstone^ These peculiarities in the structure of
the rocks continue the whole way to Hastings ; and the
tall cliffs of sandstone, on one of which are perched the
ruins of the ancient castle, rising to the eastward of
that town, and forming the most prominent features
in the landscape of the neighbourhood, are too well
known to require further mention. The whole of this
extensive series of rocks, which attains a vertical
thickness of many hundred feet, and has been much
worn away by atmospheric action, and thrown into a

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 113

series of folds, is considerably older than the chalk,
from which it is separated by the beds known as the
Upper Greensand, Gault, and Lower Greensand, and is
collectively known as the Wealden series, or formation.
Instead of having been formed, like the overlying chalk
and other deposits, at the bottom of an ancient sea,
the whole of the Wealden beds are of purely fresh-
water origin — a circumstance abundantly proved by
the fossils found in the beds themselves, which com-
prise fresh-water shells, and the remains of land plants
and land animals, to the total exclusion of all marine
organisms. It is, indeed, probable that the area of the
Wealden strata, which originally extended from Kent
to the Isle of Wight, once formed the delta of a mighty
river, flowing into the North Sea, and draining a very
considerable portion of Northern Europe, during that
period of the Secondary epoch of the geological scale
immediately preceding the one in which the greensand
and chalk were deposited.

Apart from its many other points of interest to the
geologist, as well as those which it presents to the
botanist and the archaeologist, the Wealden area has
an especial and unique claim on the attention of the
palaeontologist. It was, indeed, mainly from the huge
fossil bones obtained during the earlier decades of the
present century from these deposits, by the late Dr. G.
A. Mantell, of Lewes, that our first definite knowledge
was acquired of that wonderful group of extinct land
reptiles forming the subject of the present chapter.
These creatures, for which Sir K. Owen has proposed

ii4 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the name of Dinosaurs (Gr. deinos, terrible, and sauros,
a lizard), were certainly worthy of their name, for it is
impossible to conceive more appalling monsters than
those which we propose to briefly notice.

The labours of Dr. Mantell were mainly devoted to
the Wealden rocks near the village of Cuckfield, in
the neighbourhood of Brighton, where this enthusiastic
worker obtained a great number of bones and teeth,
which are now preserved as some of the treasures of
the Natural History Museum. These specimens, im-
perfect though many of them were, enabled their
discoverer to affirm that the old delta of the Weald
was once inhabited by several kinds of extinct reptiles,
totally unlike any existing forms, and some of which
vastly exceeded in size any land animals now living.
By patient research Mantell was enabled to arrive at
a fair approximation to the general form of the
skeletons of some of these strange and uncouth in-
habitants of a former world ; but from the fragmentary
condition of the remains of other species, and the
extreme peculiarity of their structure (as now known
by entire skeletons), he never even dreamt what weird
creatures he had been the means of first bringing to
the notice of the scientific world.

One of the first, and at the same time one of the
strangest, of these Giant Eeptiles discovered by
Mantell, was definitely determined from the evidence
of its detached teeth, which are of not uncommon
occurrence in some of the Wealden beds, and one of
which is shown of the natural size in the accom-

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 115

panying woodcut (Fig. 32). These teeth have pecu-
liarly compressed crowns, with well-marked flutings
on the outer surface, and serrated lateral edges. In
many of them the summits of the crowns are found to
be worn quite flat by mutual abrasion ; from which
it is evident that these teeth indicate a reptile of
herbivorous habits, which was also of gigantic size.
From the somewhat distant resemblance presented by

FIG. 32. — Outer side and profile of the crown of a tooth of the Iguanodon.
Natural size.

them to the very much smaller teeth of» a living
American lizard known as the Iguana, Dr. Mantell
proposed to call the huge Wealden monster the Iguana-
toothed Eeptile, or Iguanodon. In the course of time
numerous more or less nearly entire bones of this
creature were obtained, when it was found that the
thigh-bone of some specimens considerably exceeded
a yard in length. This at once gave a clue to the

ii6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

enormous bulk of these reptiles, since the correspond-
ing bone of the largest existing crocodile scarcely
exceeds a foot in length. By calculating the relative
proportions of the other bones it was eventually
estimated that the Iguanodon was a creature about
30 feet in length, with a body as large as that of an
elephant ; and that it walked on all four feet like a
crocodile. Accordingly, many years ago a restoration
of the Iguanodon was set up in the gardens of the
Crystal Palace, modelled somewhat after the fashion
of a large-bodied and short-tailed crocodile. After
Mantell's death other earnest investigators occupied
themselves with the structure of the skeleton of this
creature, and finally arrived at the unexpected conclu-
sion that in many respects — more especially as regards
the structure of the haunch-bones and limbs — the
skeleton made a very curious approximation to that of
birds, and was quite unlike that of living reptiles.

As we all know, all things come to those who wait,
and the above conclusions were supported by the dis-
covery, some few years ago in the Wealden deposits of
Belgium, of a number of nearly perfect, although much
crushed, skeletons of the Iguanodon. These wonder-
ful discoveries have enabled the Belgian naturalists
to mount several entire skeletons in the Brussels
Museum, in a gallery of which they now stand as the
most marvellous restorations of extinct animals of
the Secondary epoch yet known in Europe. Fig. 33
gives a greatly reduced representation of one of the
larger of these skeletons, of which the total length is

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 117

about 33 feet. It will be seen from this figure that
the creature habitually walked on its hind legs, doubt-
less partly supported by its powerful tail, in a bird-
like attitude. The fore limbs were considerably shorter
than the hind ones ; and the hands were extremely
powerful, and probably served to assist the creature in

FIG. 33.— Restoration of the skeleton of the Iguanodon. About one-seventy-fifth
the natural size.

bringing to its mouth the leaves and fruits upon which
we may assume it subsisted. There was a long series
of teeth, similar to the one represented in Fig. 32, on
the sides of both jaws; but the muzzle was quite
toothless, and may perhaps have been sheathed in
horn, like the beak of turtles. The extreme shortness
of the fore limbs is of itself sufficient to indicate that

n8 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the Iguanodons really walked on their hind legs like
birds ; but if we require further evidence on this point
it is ready to our hand. Far in the Wealden sand-
stones of Hastings there have been found numerous
series of impressions of huge three-toed hind feet,
corresponding exactly in size with the three-toed feet
of the Iguanodon ; and, since there are no impressions
of the smaller fore feet among these tracks, the bipedal
gait of the Iguanodon is proved from an independent
line of evidence. The three toes of the Iguanodon,
it may be observed, were terminated by broad and
flattened bones more like hoofs than claws, thus again
indicating the herbivorous nature of these reptiles.

The description of the details in which the skeleton
of the Iguanodon approximates to that of birds would
involve too many abstruse anatomical points to be
given at full length in these pages, although we shall
have some observations to make on these points in
the latter part of the chapter. It may, however, be
observed in this place that all the bones of the limbs
were hollow, as in birds, while those of all living
reptiles are solid. Then the two long and rod-like
bones descending from the haunches behind the thigh-
bone are essentially bird-like in form and position, and
differ totally from the corresponding bones of crocodiles
and lizards. Again, the reduction of tliQ number of
hind toes to three, and the close relationship of the
upper bones of the ankle to those of the leg, are strong
points of resemblance to birds. It is true, indeed,
that in birds the three parallel long-bones of the foot

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 119

found immediately below the ankle in the Iguanodon
are fused into a single bone, while the ankle-bones are
respectively united with the latter and the bones of
the leg ; but in a fossil reptile from the chalk of the
United States, which may be regarded as a distant
cousin of our Iguanodon, the arrangement of these
bones is so like that obtaining in birds, that the differ-
ence is merely one of the degree to which specialisa-
tion (as naturalists call these peculiar modifications
from the ordinary type) has been carried.

Indeed, to those who believe in the evolution of
organised nature, it now appears evident that birds
have originally taken their origin from some kind of
extinct reptile more or less closely allied to the
ancestors of the Iguanodon.

From the absence of any trace of bony plates, like
those found in the skin of living crocodiles, accom-
panying the skeletons of the Iguanodon, we may
safely infer that these creatures had an entirely naked
skin. In regard to their food, we know that palms
and cycads grew abundantly in England during the
Wealden period, and it is hence highly probable that
the fruits of these plants formed a considerable part of
the nutriment of these ancient reptiles.

The sight of a herd of these giant Iguanodons, many
of which stood over 20 feet in height, stalking on their
hind limbs among the old Wealden forests and over-
topping many of its trees, must have been a spectacle in
comparison to which a drove of elephants in an Indian
jungle would be tame and commonplace.

120 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

A totally different type of Giant Land Eeptile
from the Sussex Wealden was first indicated to Man-
tell by a huge bone of the upper arm, or humerus as it
is anatomically termed. This stupendous bone, which
is now in the Natural History Museum, has a
length of upwards of fifty-four inches, and approxi-
mates in form to the corresponding bone of the croco-
diles, being solid throughout, and thus totally different
from the very much smaller arm-bone of the Iguanodoii.
As being the largest form with which he was ac-
quainted, Man tell proposed to call the reptile represented
by this bone the Pelorosaur, from the Greek peloros.
vast, and sauros, a lizard. For a long period little or
nothing more was known of the structure of this huge
creature, but at length specimens were obtained from
the Wealden of the Isle of Wight which indicated the
nature of its teeth and various parts of its skeleton ;
while valuable information was also afforded by speci-
mens obtained from the Kimeridge and Oxford clays,
which underlie the Wealden beds. It is true, indeed,
that the specimens from the Isle of Wight have been
described under a different name from the Sussex
remains, but they differ only in minute points of
detail. The tooth shown in woodcut 34 is that of the
Isle of Wight reptile, to which the name of Hoplosaur
(armed lizard) has been applied. It will be seen that
this type of tooth is quite different from that of the
Iguanodon, the outer surface of the crown being con-
vex, without flutings, and with smooth edges ; while
the inner surface is concave and spoon-like, Specimens

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS, 121

of similar teeth from the Sussex Wealclen, which evi-
dently belonged to the Pelorosaur, are much larger
than the figured tooth. The structure of the haunch-
bones of these creatures is very different from that of
the I<nianodon, and more like that of the crocodiles, so

A B

FIG. 34.— Inner side (A) and profile (B) of a tooth of the Hoplosaur.

Natural size

that it is perfectly evident that these reptiles exhibited
no especial bird-like affinities. They may, indeed, be
more correctly compared with crocodiles, which they
resembled in walking on all four feet, although in many
points of their organisation they were allied to the Igua-

122 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

nodon ; these mutual resemblances and differences thus
serving to indicate that the latter has probably been de-
rived from reptiles more closely resembling crocodiles.

The teeth of the Hoplosaur, although so unlike those
of the Iguanodon, likewise indicate that their owners
were of herbivorous habits. The gigantic bulk of these
creatures is indicated not only by the arm-bone men-
tioned above, but also by another arm-bone obtained
from the Kimeridge clay, which measures 57 inches in
length, as well as by the thigh-bone of the allied
Cetiosaur (whale-lizard) from the still older Stonesfield
slate of Oxfordshire, which is upwards of 64 inches
in length. The latter dimensions — stupendous as they
seem — are, however, exceeded by another^tlngh-bone
from the United States, which actually measures up-
wards of 74 inches, or 6 feet 2 inches in length. The
owner of this enormous bone has been appropriately
named the Atlantosaur, and appears to have been the
largest land animal yet known, alongside of which a
full-grown elephant would be a mere pigmy. The total
length of another nearly related but somewhat smaller
American species known as the Brontosaur is, indeed,
estimated to have been as much as 80 feet.

Another peculiarity of these gigantic reptiles, which
must not be passed over, occurs in the structure of the
joints of the backbone, or vertebrae. In creatures of
such enormous bulk, if the vertebrae were solid their
weight would probably be an impediment to the free
movements of the body; and we accordingly find
that these vertebrae were excavated into large hollow

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 12

chambers, thus illustrating a principle of construction
well known to engineers. A similar feature is known
elsewhere only in birds, where these chambers are
filled with air. We must not, however, omit to men-
tion that similar chambers occur in the vertebras of
the smaller members of the group under consideration,
the reason for which is less easy to see.

The third great group of Giant Land Reptiles was first
definitely brought under the notice of the scientific
world by the late Dean Buckland, the celebrated Pro-
fessor of Geology in the University of Oxford, as far
back as the year 1824 The Professor had observed
that in the Stonesfield slate of Oxfordshire, to which
allusion has already been
made, there were not uncom-
monly found teeth of the
peculiar type of the one shown
in woodcut 35 ; although
many of them were of con-
siderably larger dimension
than the figured specimen.
It will be seen from the
figure that this type of tooth
(of which only the crown or

exposed portion is represented) differs very widely in-
deed from the teeth of the Iguanodon and Hoplosaur.

Thus the crown of this tooth is much flattened from
side to side, with sharp, cutting fore-and-aft edges, of
which the front one is highly convex, while the hinder
one is either nearly straight or somewhat concave.

FIG. 35. — Profile and side of the
crown of a tooth of a Megalo-
saurian Reptile, with part of the
serrations enlarged.

I24 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Moreover, one or both of these cutting-edges were
jagged like a saw, indicating that these formidable
teeth were adapted for tearing and rending flesh. This
led Dr. Buckland to conclude that the old Stonesfield
reptile, to which these teeth once belonged, was of
carnivorous habits ; and since the bones found in the
same deposits indicated a creature of comparatively
huge dimensions, he proposed that it should be known
as the Megalosaur, or Great Reptile. Since, however, the
thigh-bone of the Megalosaur does not exceed a yard
in length, it is obvious that the creature was vastly in-
ferior in point of size to the Hoplosaur and its kindred.

Similar teeth were subsequently found by Dr. Man-
tell in the Wealden beds ; and by discoveries after-
wards made both in Europe and the United States, it
was eventually found that the Megalosaur was merely
one representative of a group of Giant Land Reptiles
characterised, among other peculiarities, by the pos-
session of teeth of the type described above, and also
by having sharply curved claws adapted to aid these
teeth in seizing and destroying living prey. While,
therefore, the Iguanodons and the Hoplosaurs of the
Secondary period may be compared to the herbivorous
elephants and hippopotami of the present fauna of the
globe, the place of the lions and tigers of to-day was
occupied in the same early epoch by the Megalosaurs.

Although these Megalosaurs walked upright, like
the Iguanodons, which they also resembled in having
hollow limb-bones, there is a very important difference
between these two groups of reptiles in regard to that

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 125

part of the skeleton which includes the haunch-bones,
and is technically known as the pelvis (from the Latin
word for a basin, in allusion to the basin-like shape of
the human pelvis). Now since it is to a great extent
from the structure of the pelvis that the affinity
between Giant Eeptiles and Birds has been proved to
exist, it is worth while to pay some attention to this
point; although the reader must make up his mind
not to be frightened by the unavoidable use of a cer-

FlG. 36 —Left side of the pelvis of the Kiwi, il, haunch-bone or ilium ; p, p',
pubis ; is, ischium ; a, cup forlieadjof thigh-bone. (After Marsh.)

tain number of technical terms for bones which have
no vernacular name. If, then, the reader will direct
his attention to Fig. 36, which represents one side of
the pelvis of the New Zealand wingless bird known as
the Kiwi or Apteryx, he will observe that the haunch-
bone extends as a deep vertical plate a long distance
in advance of the cup for the reception of the head of
the thigh-bone. He will also see that the inferior
portion of the pelvis is composed of two bars of bone

126 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

respectively known as the pubis and ischium, lying
nearly parallel to one another and directed behind the
aforesaid cup for the thigh-bone. The pubis, or more
anterior bone, also gives off a small process (p) pro-
jecting from its upper end towards the head of the
animal. Now this type of pelvis is found, at the
present day, only among birds, that of lizards and
crocodiles being quite different. If, however, we turn
to the figure of the skeleton of the Iguanodon (woodcut
33), we shall find, as already briefly mentioned, that the
pubis and ischium (seen to the right of the leg) run
parallel to one another, and are directed backwards
after the fashion obtaining in birds. It is true, indeed,
that in the Iguanodon the pubis is shorter than the
ischium; and it also gives off a large anterior plate
(seen to the left of the leg) corresponding to the small
process p in the pelvis of the Kiwi. These, however,
are but minor points of difference which do not affect
the fundamental identity of plan. Again, the haunch-
bone of the Iguanodon extends far in advance of the
cup for the head of the thigh-bone, and thus once more
follows (or, as we should rather say, leads) the bird-
fashion. These peculiarities in the structure of the
pelvis of the Iguanodon, coupled with other features in
its organisation, ought to leave no doubt, in the minds
of all unprejudiced observers who hold the doctrine of
evolution, that there is some direct affinity between the
extinct Giant Reptiles and the modern wingless birds.

Turning now to the pelvis of the Megalosaur, of
which a greatly reduced representation is given in

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 127

Fig. 37, it will at once be apparent that we have to do
with a widely different type of structure. Thus we
notice, in the first place, that the haunch-bone extends
but a comparatively short distance in front of the cup

FIG. 37. — Left side of the pelvis of Megalosaur. One-twelfth natural size.
Letters as in Fig. 36. (After Marsh.)

for the head of the thigh-bone. Then, again, — and this
is by far the most important feature — the pubis is
directed forwards instead of backwards, and thus,
instead of lying parallel with the ischium, is placed
at a very open angle to that bone. This form of

128 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

pelvis, although differing in some details, is, indeed,
of the general type of that obtaining in modern
crocodiles ; and thus serves to show that in this re-
spect the Megalosaur (and likewise the Hoplosaur)
were more nearly related to ordinary reptiles, and less
closely to birds, than is the case with the Iguanodon.

If, however, we were led to conclude from the fore-
going facts that the Megalosaur presented no closer
indications of affinity with birds than is exhibited by
modern crocodiles, we should be grievously in error ;
for not only does it exhibit such a relationship, but
exhibits it in a manner which is not displayed by the
Iguanodon. In this respect we have, therefore, an
excellent illustration of that extreme complexity in
the mutual relationships of extinct animals, which
should serve as a warning against hasty conclusions
as to any one extinct type having been the actual
ancestor of an existing creature.

The relationship of the Megalosaur to birds is best
exemplified by certain features in the form and con-
nection of the bones of the lower leg and ankle, in
attempting to explain which we must again crave the
reader's pardon for the introduction of a certain number
of unavoidable technicalities.

Most of us are probably aware that our own ankle
consists of two rows of small bones, of which the
upper row includes the heel-bone, and the huckle-bone
(corresponding to the well-known " huckle-bone " of a
leg of mutton) ; while the lower row has four smaller
bones. Now in moving the foot on the leg, as in the

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 129

action of walking, it is evident that the joint is situated
between the two long-bones of the leg and the upper
row of the ankle, i.e., the heel-bone and huckle-
bone. In a crocodile, on the contrary, the ankle joint
occurs between the upper and the lower rows of the
ankle, so that the heel-bone and the huckle-bone move
with the leg-bones. In a bird there is yet one step
further on this, for not only does the movable joint
occur between the upper and the lower rows of the
ankle, but the huckle-bone and the heel-bone are
respectively united with the two long-bones of the
leg, so as to form practically single bones ; while the
bones of the lower row of the ankle similarly unite
with the long-bones supporting the toes, so as to form
that single slender bone, with three pulley-like lower
surfaces, with which we are all familiar in the leg of a
fowl (see Fig. 47, B, p. 151). An adult bird, therefore,
while having an ankle-joint, has no separate ankle-
bones. In a young bird, however, as we may see for
ourselves in the case of a young fowl on our dinner-
table, the lower end of the so-called " drumstick," or
main bone of the leg, is incompletely united to the bone
itself, so that it can be readily detached ; this detachable
portion being, in fact, the bird's true huckle-bone.

Now in the crocodile, as we have already mentioned,
the huckle-bone, although moving with the leg-bone,
remains perfectly separate therefrom; but in the
Megalosaur we find a condition exactly intermediate
between that obtaining in the crocodile and the adult
bird. This will be apparent from Fig. 38, where we

1 30 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

see the lower end of the leg-bone of the Mega-
losaur with the huckle-bone closely applied to it, and
probably immovably united thereto
during life by cartilage. This con-
dition is, indeed, precisely similar
to that which exists in the young
fowl ; and thus, we have, so to
speak, displayed before us the
actual manner in which the leg of
a reptile has become converted into

FIG. 38.— The lower end of

the leg-bone of Megaio- that of a bird, the young bird

saur, with the huckle- . "

bone attached to it. carrying with it the history ot its
origin fully apparent to all who
will but read Nature's secrets aright. When, however,
we make this statement we by no means intend to
imply that the Megalosaur or any of its immediate
kindred were the direct ancestors of birds, but only
that they were more or less closely allied to such
unknown ancestral types.

There are almost equally remarkable resemblances
in the structure of other parts of the leg of the
Megalosaur to that of birds, but the feature indicated
is amply sufficient for our present purpose.

The group of which the Megalosaur is our typical
example is a large one, and contains some species with
a thigh-bone upwards of a yard in length, down to
tiny little creatures scarcely as large as a rabbit.
These reptiles were widely spread over nearly the
whole globe ; their remains having been obtained from
the Secondary rocks of Europe, India, South Africa,

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 131

North America, and even as far north as Behring
Strait. Some of the smaller species, like those found
in the Lithographic limestones of the Continent and
in the United States, probably took considerable leaps
with their long hind legs, and must thus have re-
sembled the smaller kangaroos of Australia.

Briefly summing up the result of the foregoing
observations, we find that the Giant Land Eeptiles
may be divided into three great primary groups pre-
senting the following distinctive features. In the first
group, as represented by the Iguanodon, the teeth were
adapted for grinding, and had compressed crowns, orna-
mented with ridges on the outer side ; the limb-bones
were hollow ; the pelvis was bird-like ; and the mode
of progression was bipedal. In the second group, as
exemplified by the Hoplosaur, we have nearly or quite
the largest known land animals; their teeth were
spoon-like, and adapted for vegetable food ; the limb-
bones were solid throughout ; the pelvis was not very
unlike that of a crocodile ; and the mode of progres-
sion was quadrupedal. Finally, in the third group,
of which we took the Megalosaur as our type, the
teeth and claws were adapted for capturing and
devouring living prey ; and although the pelvis ap-
proximated to the crocodilian plan, yet in the structure
of the leg and ankle these reptiles (in which the limb-
bones were hollow) made a closer approximation to
birds than is presented even by the Iguanodon.

The above-mentioned remarkable variations of struc-
ture presented by the members of the three foregoing

1 32 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

groups might well have been supposed to exhaust the
peculiarities displayed by the Giant Land Eeptiles.
In the very topmost beds of the Secondary rocks of
the United States there occur, however, the remains
of another group of these creatures, which appear to
indicate a special modification of the original stock from
which the Iguanodons took their origin, and present
some of the most bizarre and strange creatures yet
revealed to our astonished gaze in a country where
fossil animals appear to have run riot as regards
strangeness. The occurrence of these creatures in
the topmost cretaceous rocks, at a period just before
the whole group of Giant Eeptiles became extinct for
ever, is like the final " flare-up " at the close of a dis-
play of fireworks, and suggests that the extreme speci-
alisation to which these creatures had finally attained
rendered them unsuitable for the wear -and tear of life,
and thus conduced to their final extinction.

The reptiles forming this group or sub-group are
collectively known as the Armoured and the Horned
Dinosaurs. Their pelvis is a modification of that
of the Iguanodon, usually exhibiting the backward
direction of the pubis and ischium; but the limb-
bones were solid, and either the body was covered
with huge bony plates and spines, or long horn-cores,
like those of the oxen, were present on the skull.

The Armoured Dinosaurs were first made known
to us by more or less imperfect skeletons discovered
in the Lias, Kimeridge Clay, and Wealden formations
of England. One of the best known of these reptiles

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 133

is the so-called Stegosaur, of which a considerable
portion of the skeleton was found some years ago
in digging a well in the Kimeridge clay at Swindon ;
this specimen being now preserved in the Natural
History Museum. Entire skeletons subsequently
found in the United States show that in this extra-
ordinary creature the back was protected by a series

FIG. 39.— Restored skeleton of Armoured Dinosaur. About one-sixtieth natura
size, sc, shoulder-blade, or scapula ; co, coracoid ; h, upper arm-bone, or
humerus ; r, u, bones of fore-arm, or radius and ulna ; c, wrist or carpus ;
me, metacarpus ; il, haunch-bone, or ilium ; p, pubis ; in, ischium ; /, thigh-
bone, or femur ; ti, fi, bones of lower leg, or tibia and fibula ; ta, ankle, or
tarsus ; mt, metatarsus. (After Marsh.)

of enormous bony plates, standing on edge from the
spines of the back-bone, and the whole skeleton thus
presenting the remarkable appearance shown in Fig. 39.
Towards the end of the tail these plates were replaced
by spines. The skull was devoid of horns, and some-
what resembled that of the Iguanodon, although more
depressed. The teeth of these reptiles resembled the

134 ANIMAL LIFE 'PAST AND PRESENT.

specimen shown in Fig. 40, and were simpler and rela-
tively smaller than those of the Iguanodon, although
constructed on the same fundamental plan. This
diminution in the size of the teeth,
we may observe in passing, appears to
be an instance of that tendency to a
reduction or disappearance of the teeth
in the specialised forms of many groups
of animals to which we have alluded in
the chapter on tortoises and turtles.
YIU. 4o.-side view The Armoured Dinosaurs were also
of the tooth of Ar- we^ ^presented in the Wealden (where

moured Dinosaur. x

Enlarged. (After they were first discovered by Dr. Man-
tell), although we have at present no
evidence as to the nature of their skulls. One of
these Wealden reptiles, which has been named the
Hyla3osaur (from the Greek liuU, " wood," in allusion to
the Wealden, or wooded country), carried a formidable
row of large flattened spines forming a crest down
the back. The other, termed Polacanthus (many-
spined), is remarkable for having had the whole region
of the loins and haunches protected by a continuous
sheet of bony plate-armour, rising into knobs and spines,
after the fashion of the carapace of the Glyptodonts.*

The earliest evidence of the existence of the Horned
Dinosaurs occurs in the greensand of Austria, but the
specimens hitherto obtained from these deposits are
too imperfect to give us any definite insight into the
organisation of these reptiles. We accordingly turn

* See Chapter I.

GIANT LAND EEPTILES OR DINOSAURS.

135

to the upmost Cretaceous rocks of the United States,
where the remains which have been unearthed must
excite the envy of all European paleontologists.

As their name implies, one of the most striking
features in the organisation of these uncouth monsters
is the presence of large horn-cores on the skull, as

FIG. 41.— Side view of the skull of Horned Dinosaur. One-twentieth natural size.
a, nostril ; b, eye ; hh', horn-cores ; r, upper part of beak ; p, lower part of
beak. (After Marsh.)

shown in Fig. 41. The skull of which we give a
figure is remarkable not only for its gigantic size —
the length of the specimen, which is said to indicate
an immature individual, being about six feet — but also
for its peculiar armature and structure. An imperfect
skull of another species exceeds these dimensions, huge
as they are, and is estimated when entire to have had

136 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

a length of over eight feet. No other known animals,
except whales, have a skull making any approach to
these dimensions ; that of the huge Atlantosaur being
very small in comparison with the bulk of its owner.
The skull before us is likewise remarkable for its
wedge-like form when viewed from above, and carries
a pair of large horn-cores immediately over the eyes,
and a short and single core above the nose. During
life it may be inferred with a high degree of proba-
bility that these bony cores were sheathed with horn,
like those of oxen, and that they proved equally
effective weapons of defence.

The structure of the teeth is somewhat similar to
that obtaining in the Iguanodon, but each tooth has
two distinct roots. As in the latter, the extremity of
the lower jaw is devoid of teeth, and likewise has a
separate terminal bone. The upper jaw is, however,
peculiar in having a distinct toothless bone at the
extremity of the muzzle ; so that it would seem probable
that the mouth of these reptiles formed a kind of beak
sheathed in horn like that of a tortoise. In young
individuals the front horn-core is a separate bone, but
in the adult it became firmly united to the underlying
bones, so that in this respect we have a precise analogy
with the horn-cores of the giraffe. The brain of the
creature is very minute — relatively smaller, indeed, than
in any known Vertebrate; this, however, might have been
expected from the diminutive size of the brain in other
Dinosaurs, since, in the same groups, large animals always
have relatively smaller brains than their smaller allies.

GIANT LAND REPTILES OR DINOSAURS. 137

From the restored skeleton represented in fig. 42,
it will be seen that the pelvis of the Horned Dinosaurs
is quite unlike that of any members of the group ; the
pubis being constructed on the plan of that of the
Iguanodon, but with the loss of the bar running back-
wards parallel with the ischium.

With this brief reference to the Horned Dinosaurs,
we close our survey of the Giant Land Eeptiles. In a
short sketch like the present it is, of course, impossible

FIG. 42.— Restored skeleton of Horned Dinosaur. About one-eightieth natura
size, pd, lower part of beak; i, ischium. Other letters as in Fig. 39.
(After Marsh.)

to do more than glance at a few of the more striking
features of the organisation of these most extraordinary
creatures. The reader who has followed us throughout
will, however, have acquired some general idea of their
chief peculiarities and affinities : and he may profitably
endeavour to realise in his mind's eye the aspect of a
world in which the land- surf ace was peopled by these
uncouth reptiles, of all shapes and sizes, while the air
was tenanted by the weird Flying Dragons, described
in the succeeding chapter.

CHAPTEE IX.
FLYING DRAGONS, OR PTERODACTYLES.

LEGENDS of Flying Dragons were rife both among the
ancients and also during the middle ages, but it was
reserved for the great founder of the science of com-
parative anatomy — Cuvier — to show that such crea-
tures really once existed, and were not merely the
dreams of the poet and the herald. In the year 1784
Collini described the skeleton of a strange creature
found in the fine-grained limestones of Bavaria, so ex-
tensively quarried for the use of the lithographer, which
he regarded as indicating an unknown marine animal.
When, however, this curious specimen came into the
hands of Cuvier, about the year 1809, he recognised it
as the remains of a reptile endowed with the power of
flight, for which he proposed the name of Pterodactyle —
a term compounded from the Greek words for a wing
and a finger. In thus proving, once for all, the former
existence of Flying Dragons, it must not, however,
be supposed that Cuvier thereby authenticated the old
legends which represented these creatures as capturing
human beings, and being themselves in turn destroyed

by valiant champions. These real Flying Dragons, on

138

FLYING DRAGONS, OR FTERODACTYLES. 159

the contrary, existed long ages before man or any of
the higher types of mammals had made their appear-
ance on the globe ; being, indeed, characteristic of the
Secondary epoch of the geologists, the relations of
which to the present epoch have been indicated in the
chapter on Fish-Lizards.

Before the master-mind of Cuvier indicated the true
affinities of the original specimen of the Pterodactyle,
one naturalist had regarded it as a bird, and another as
a bat, and it will therefore be interesting to glance at
the chief features in the bony anatomy of these crea-
tures, to see how the great anatomist was justified in
his conclusions. For this purpose we give a figure in
the woodcut on page 141 of the skeleton of a small
Pterodactyle obtained from the Lithographic lime-
stones of Bavaria, and remarkable for its beautiful
state of preservation. It will be seen from this figure
that the neck of these creatures is comparatively short,
with but few joints, or vertebrae, in which respect it
is unlike that of a bird. The skull is, however, wonder-
fully bird-like in the figured specimen, although in some
species it is much shorter and more lizard-like. There
are, however, certain features in the structure of the
skull, into the consideration of which it would be diffi-
cult to enter in the present volume, by which it is at
once distinguished from the skull of a bird. The
presence of a number of sharply pointed teeth (shown
in Fig. 43) was, indeed, at one period regarded as an-
other point in which Pterodactyles differed from birds ;
but it has been subsequently found that many if not

340 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

all the birds of the Secondary epoch were provided
with teeth, while in some Pterodactyles those organs
were wanting as shown in Fig. 45. The most ready
means of distinguishing a Pterodactyle from a bird is,
however, to be found in the structure of the fore-limb.
Thus it will be seen from Fig. 43 that the " hand " of a
Pterodactyle carries three fingers furnished with claws,
and a fourth extremely elongated finger which has no
terminal claw, and supports the membranous wings.
It is on the whole probable that this elongated finger
corresponds to the little finger of the human hand, the
thumb being probably represented by the small splint-
like bone seen at the wrist in the figure; and in any
case the finger in question is the outermost one, whether
it correspond to the ring-finger or the little finger of
the human hand. Now in the wing of a bird, on the
contrary, neither of the bones corresponding to the
fingers are greatly elongated, while the longest of these
modified fingers is the one representing the index or
fore-finger of the human hand, and is, therefore, the
very opposite of the elongated finger of the Flying
Dragons. This essential difference between the struc-
ture of the wing of a Pterodactyle and that of a bird
is of such radical importance as to indicate that the
Flying Dragons could not possibly have been the
ancestors of birds ; which, as we have mentioned in the
preceding chapter, were more probably descended from
those extraordinary reptiles known as Dinosaurs.

The shield-like bone seen in Fig. 43, lying in the
middle of the chest in front of the back-bone, corre-

FLYING DRAGONS, OR PTERODACTYLES. 141

spends to the breast-bone of a bird, and, like that of
the majority of birds, has a keel projecting in front

FIG. 43.— The skeleton of a Pterodactyle. The creature is lying on its back, with
the head bent to the left side, a indicates the left pubic bone ; the haunch-
bone, or ilium, being shown on the opposite side. (After Von Meyer.)

for the support of the strong muscles of the breast
necessary to move the wing in flight. This remarkable
similarity between the breast-bone of a Pterodactyle

142 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and that of a bird is a good instance of what compara-
tive anatomists term an adaptive resemblance ; that is,
a resemblance caused by the circumstance that a par-
ticular organ or bone has to subserve the same purpose
in two particular instances, and not as indicating any
direct relationship between the owners of such struc-
tures. It will further be observed from the figure
that the skeleton of the Pterodactyle differs from that
of an ordinary bird by the absence of the so-called
"merry-thought" or furcula. Since, however, that
bone is either rudimentary or absent in the flightless
birds allied to the ostrich, it cannot be regarded as a
feature of first rank in distinguishing Pterodactyles
from birds.

Having thus shown that Flying Dragons cannot be
classed with birds, it remains to mention why they
should be placed with reptiles rather than with
mammals. This point is, however, at once decided by
the circumstance that the skull is jointed to the back-
bone by a single knob-like articulation, or condyle,
instead of by the two condyles found in all mammals
(see page 68). If further proof were wanting, it is
found in the circumstance that each half of the lower
jaw consists of several totally distinct bones, as in all
birds and reptiles ; whereas in mammals it is composed
of but a single piece.

With this glance at the general features of the
skeleton of the Flying Dragons, we may proceed to
notice some of the peculiarities of the different kinds
of these creatures, and also what is known as to the

FLYING DRAGONS, OR PTERODACTYLES. 143

structure of their wings. The true Pterodactyles, as
is shown in Fig. 43, are readily characterised by the
extreme shortness of the tail ; but in another group,
also found in the Lithographic limestones, the tail is
as long as that of a lizard. The members of this second
group are known as Rhamphorhynchs, and the restora-
tion shown in Fig. 44 is taken from a beautiful example
found some few years ago, in which the impression of
the delicate membrane of the wing is preserved with as

FIG. 44.— Restoration of a Long-tailed Pterodactyle, or Rhamphorhynch.
One-seventh natural size. (After Marsh.)

much sharpness as if made but yesterday. This and
other specimens show that while the front edge of
the wing was supported by the elongated outer finger
the wing extended backwards to embrace the greater
part of the hind limb, while the extremity of the tail
was furnished with a racquet-shaped expansion of
membrane which probably served the purpose of a
rudder during flight. Curiously enough, a slab of
Lithographic limestone preserved in the museum at
Haarlem exhibits a sinuous trail which is believed to

i44 - ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

have been caused by the extremity of the tail of one
of these creatures as it walked across the soft mud
now consolidated into stone. > The impression of the
wings shows that these consisted of a soft leathery
membrane, probably something like that of the wing
of a bat; and it is quite evident that there were no
feathers either on the body or the wings. The body,
like the wings, was, indeed, in all probability entirely
naked; and this circumstance militates against the
suggestion that the Flying Dragons were warm-blooded
creatures, since a protection of either fur or feathers is
found necessary in the case of birds and bats to main-
tain their high temperature. The Khamphorhynchs
occur not only in the Lithographic limestone, which
is situated near the top of the great Oolitic system —
the system underlying that of the Chalk — but are also
found in the older Lias. Another group, also found
in the Lias, are characterised by their short skulls
and the superiority in size of the front over the hinder
teeth, in consequence of which they are known as
Dimorphodonts.

Perhaps, however, the most remarkable forms found
in the whole group are the toothless types, or Pterano-
donts, of which a skull is shown in Fig 45. In these
creatures teeth were totally wanting, and the jaws
were probably sheathed in horn, like those of tortoises,
while the hinder or occipital region of the skull was
produced into an enormous flattened spine, which also
recalls a feature found in the tortoises (see Fig. 31,
page 107). Whereas most of the forms we have hitherto

PLYING DRAGONS, OR PTERODACTYLES. 145

noticed did nofe
exceed a rook in
size, some of the
Pteranodonts were
of enormous di-
mensions, one of
them having a
skull measuring
upwards of four
feet in length, and
its expanse of wing
being probably
about twenty-five
feet. These Ptera-
nodonts are found
in the chalk of the
United States ;
but species nearly
as large occur in
the chalk of this
country, although
they were fur-
nished with a
powerful armature
of teeth, and have
been described
under the uncouth
and exceedingly
misleading name
of Ornithochirans

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111

J46 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

— the hand or wing of all the Flying Dragons being,
as we have already said, as much unlike that of a bird
as it well can be. These huge monsters flying through
the air must have been a marvellous sight, and they
afford one more instance that the wildest dreams of
romance have not produced creatures one whit more
wonderful than those which at one time had a corporeal
existence upon the earth.

That the Flying Dragons were capable of sustained
flight, like birds and bats, seems to be beyond' reason-
able doubt. It is further evident that the toothed
forms were of carnivorous habits, and it was suggested
years ago, by the late Dean Buckland, that while the
smaller species may have subsisted on the dragon-flies
and other insects that are known to have lived at the
period when the Lithographic limestone was laid down,
the larger ones may have preyed on fishes, and perhaps
also on the small contemporaneous mammals. It is
difficult to suggest what kinds of animals formed the
food of the large toothed forms from the English chalk ;
but in the case of the toothless American monsters it
may be pretty safely said that, if they preyed on fish,
they must have had a capacious mouth and gullet, and
swallowed their prey whole, after the fashion of pelicans
and other fish-eating birds.

CHAPTEE X.
GIANT BIRDS.

THE only birds existing at the present day which in
any sense merit the epithet gigantic are the Ostriches
of Africa and Arabia, the Eheas of South America, the
Cassowaries of Papua and North Australia, and the
Australian Emus ; and even the largest of these — the
male Ostrich — seldom exceeds seven feet in height.
The researches of palaeontologists have, however, re-
vealed to us that these four groups are but survivors
of a more extensive assemblage of Giant Birds which
was once spread over a considerable portion of the
globe, and some of whose members as much surpassed
the Ostrich in size as the latter exceeds the Eheas in
this respect. Indeed, with our present knowledge of
the meaning of the geographical distribution of animals,
the very circumstance that existing Giant Birds are
more or less closely allied, and are found scattered over
the globe in areas widely separated and disconnected
from one another, would of itself have been sufficient
to indicate that they are the remnants of a group which
was at one time of much larger extent, and inhabited

regions where such creatures are now unknown. It is

147

1 48 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

unfortunately the case that there are still many gaps
in the chain which should link all the existing Giant
Birds together, but we may confidently hope that the
progress of geological research will little by little reduce
the number and length of these gaps.

All the Giant Birds, it may be observed, both living
and extinct, are linked together by their incapacity of
night, and the consequent absence of that strong bony
ridge or keel which we may observe on the breast-
bone of a duck or a fowl, and the presence of which is
essential to form a firm support for the powerful
muscles required to move the wings. Whether, however,
this incapacity for fiight is a feature which was always
possessed by the Giant Birds, or whether it has been
gradually acquired by disuse, is a question which has
exercised the minds of those best fitted to decide it ;
but the probability is that it is an acquired one.
Moreover, in saying that the Giant Birds are incapable
of flight, it must by no means be inferred that all
birds in that condition have any affinity to this group.
On the contrary, the opposite is the case, since in the
extinct Dodo of the Mauritius we have an instance of
a huge pigeon which had evidently lost the power of
night ; and the superficial deposits of New Zealand have
yielded the remains of a large rail and a goose which
were also in the same predicament. These and other
flightless birds differ, however, essentially in several
parts of their organisation from the true Giant Birds,
and thus have no sort of connection with the subject
of this chapter. There are, however, certain birds,

GIANT BIRDS. 149

namely, the little Kiwis of New Zealand, which, although
by no means entitled to rank as Giant Birds in the
proper sense of that term, yet as being closely related
to the typical members of that group, must find a place
therein. Before, however, we can consider the fossil
members of this group, it is necessary that we should
have some idea of the general structure of the leg of a
bird, since it is this part of the skeleton which is most
commonly met with in a fossil condition, and which
affords the most important clue as to the size and
affinities of the bird to which it belonged. Some
observations on this point have already been made in
the chapter on Giant Eeptiles; but since those were
mainly directed to showing the resemblance between
the leg of a bird and that of a reptile, they are not well
suited to our present purpose.

A bird's leg, then, as shown in Fig. -'6, B, is com-
posed of four segments ; the upper, short one corre-
sponding to the human thigh-bone, and the lowest
representing the toes, which are composed of several
small bones. Between these two segments are the two
long and slender bones shown in the figure. The upper
and longer of these two (Fig. 47, A) corresponds with
the human leg-bone, plus the huckle-bone welded on
to its lower end. The lower and shorter bone, of which
another example is shown in Fig. 47, B, is a very
remarkable bone indeed, and may be conveniently
called the cannon-bone. It is really composed of three
separate long bones, of which the ends remain free at
the lower extremity and carry the toes, and also of the

150 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

lower part of the ankle welded on to the upper end.
The middle long bone corresponds exactly with the
cannon-bone of a horse, the nature of which is ex-

Fio. 46.— Skeleton of the Elephant-footed Moa (A), and right leg of the Giant
Moa (JB). A, about one-eighteenth ; B, about one-twenty-third natural size.
(After Owen.)

plained in the chapter on " Rudimentary Structures ; "
and the whole compound bone would correspond with
the metatarsus of the extinct three -toed horse known

GIANT BIRDS.

as the Hipparion, if its three metatarsals were welded
together, and these again with the bones of the lower
half of the ankle. It will, accordingly, be evident that
a bird is an odd-toed
animal like a horse (that
is to say, the toe repre-
senting the middle one
of the typical five is sym-
metrical in itself and
larger than either of the
others), having a cannon-
bone, but no separate
ankle-bones ; the upper
ankle-bone or huckle-
bone having become
welded on to the leg-
bone, and the lower ones
similarly united to the
cannon-bone. In these respects, therefore, a bird is a
very specialised kind of creature, as departing widely
from the original type. With these necessary anato-
mical explanations, we shall be in a position to enter
on the subject of the extinct Giant Birds.

The first of these extinct birds brought to the notice
of the scientific world were the Moas of New Zealand,
in which islands the only existing representatives of
the group are the diminutive Kiwis. The original
determination of the former existence of these giant
birds affords, indeed, an interesting instance of the
certainty of anatomical deductions, when made with

FIG. 47. — Leg-bone (A) and cannon-
bone (B) of Moas. Reduced.

152 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

proper care and sufficient knowledge. Thus in 1839 a
man brought to Sir R Owen the broken shaft of the
thigh-bone of some large animal, which he stated had
been obtained from New Zealand, where the natives
believed that similar bones were those of a large eagle.
The specimen was a somewhat unpromising one, but
after careful comparison the Professor confidently pro-
nounced that it belonged to an extinct bird consider-
ably larger than any ostrich, for which he proposed
the name of Dinornis. Other specimens soon after
brought to this country established the correctness of
this bold identification, and showed that giant birds
far surpassing in size any previously known must have
existed at a comparatively recent date, and in extra-
ordinary numbers in New Zealand. In the swamps —
especially the well-known one of Glenmark, near
Canterbury — these bones, and in some cases nearly
entire skeletons, are very abundant ; while in caves
there have been obtained not only parts of skeletons
with the skin still adhering to them, but even well-
preserved feathers, and broken egg-shells. Although
the Maoris well know that these remains belonged to
gigantic birds, and give them a name of which the
word Moa is generally considered to be a corruption,
yet there is some difference of opinion as to whether
their ancestors ever saw these birds in the liesh ; some
authorities considering that they were killed off by the
race which is believed to have inhabited New Zealand
before the advent of the Maoris. Still, in any case,
Moas must have existed up to a very late epoch ; and

GIANT BIRDS. 153

it is even said that the " runs " made by them were
visible on the sides of the hills up to a few years ago,
and may, indeed, still be so.

The leg-bone of a Moa may be at once known from
that of all living Giant Birds by the circumstance that
on the front surface of its lower end, immediately
above the huckle-bone, there is a narrow bar of bone
forming a bridge over a small groove (this being dis-
tinctly shown in Fig. 47, A). In the Giant Moa, of
which the leg is represented in Fig. 46, B, the leg-bone
attains the enormous length of one yard, and in an
allied species from the South Island its length is
upwards of 39 inches. The cannon-bone (as may be
seen in the figure) is comparatively long and slender,
and is more than half the length of the leg-bone. A
skeleton of a smaller individual in the Natural History
Museum has an approximate height of 10 J feet, and
we thus conclude that the larger birds did not stand
less than 12 feet. There were other species of true
Moas, of about the dimensions of a large male ostrich,
although of stouter build; and resembling the larger
birds in having only three toes to the feet, and not the
slightest trace of a wing.

Alongside of these giants there were, however, other
species of much smaller size, in which there were four
toes to each foot, and the cannon-bone was relatively
much shorter (Fig. 47, B). Thus the Dwarf Moa, of
which the Natural History Museum possesses a com-
plete skeleton, was not more than three feet high,
while Owen's Moa was of still smaller dimensions.

154 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

There were also other species of this group nearly as
large as an ostrich.

Perhaps, however, the most remarkable of all these
birds is the Elephant-footed Moa (Fig. 46, A), which,
although by no means equal in height to the Giant
Moa, was of much more massive build. In this extra-
ordinary bird the leg-bone is much shorter and thicker
than in the Giant Moa, while the cannon-bone is so
short and thick that it almost loses the character of a
" long bone." In one unusually large example of the
last-named bone, while the length is only 9^ inches,
the width at the lower end is upwards of 6J. By the
side of such a bone the cannon-bone of an ox looks
small and slender, and the effects of a kick from such
a leg can be better imagined than described.

The total number of kinds of Moa inhabiting New
Zealand was probably at least twenty, and, from the
enormous accumulations of their bones found in some
districts, we may assume that these creatures were
extremely common, and probably went about in droves.
Nothing like this bird fauna is known in any other
part of the world; and its exuberance may be pro-
bably explained by the absence of mammals from New
Zealand, so that when the ancestors of the Moas once
reached these islands they found a free field for un-
limited development. The nearest allies of the Moas
are the small Kiwis ; but whereas the latter have long
pointed bills for probing in soft mud after worms, the
bills of the Moa were short and broad like those of
the Ostrich. Moreover, although the Kiwis have no

GIANT BIRDS. 155

wings visible externally, they retain rudimentary wing-
bones, which have totally disappeared in the Moas.
The plumage of the Moas appears to have been of the
hair-like nature of that of the Kiwis. Since the latter
differ from the Ostriches in that the females are larger
than the males, we may assume that the same con-
dition obtained among the Moas. The Kiwis are
further remarkable for the enormous proportionate
size of their eggs; and if anything like the same
relative proportions held good with those of the Moas,
the egg of the Giant Moa must have been of stupendous
dimensions. It is, however, probable that the eggs of
the larger Moas were relatively smaller than those of
the Kiwis.

Passing to Australia, we find in the superficial
deposits remains of a bird as large as some of the
medium-sized species of Moa, but at once distinguished
by the absence of a bridge of bone at the lower end of
the leg-bone. This bird, known as Dromornis, is, how-
ever, as yet but very imperfectly known, so that we
are to a great extent in the dark as to its affinities,
though it was probably a distant giant relation of the
Cassowaries.

Before we again meet with fossil giant birds we have
to cross the whole extent of the Indian Ocean to
Madagascar. Here there occurs the enormous bird
known as the dSpyomis, the existence of which was
first revealed by its eggs, found sunk in the swamps,
but of which bones — mostly imperfect — were subse-
quently discovered. One of these enormous eggs

156 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

measures three feet in its longer circumference, and
2 \ feet in girth ; its cubic contents being estimated at
rather more than two gallons. The leg-bone of this
bird has no bony bridge at its lower end, and the
cannon bone (of which only a portion is known) is as
wide as that of the Elephant- footed Moa, but much
longer and thinner. The natives search after the eggs
of this bird by probing for them in the soft mud of
the swamps with long iron rods.

The Moas, Drornornis, and ^Epyornis indicate, then,
three totally distinct groups of Giant Birds ; and since
their various habitats occupy islands on both sides of
the Indian Ocean, it is a fair presumption that their
common ancestors originally inhabited some part of
the great continental mass of the Old World. Support
is afforded to this hypothesis by the occurrence of the
Ostriches on the west, and the Cassowaries and Emus
on the eastern side of the same great ocean. More-
over, there is historic evidence to the effect that
Ostriches, which are now confined to Africa and
Arabia, formerly existed in Baluchistan and Central
Asia ; and since their fossil remains occur in the
Pliocene deposits of Northern India, there is little
doubt that at least this group of Giant Birds originated
in the northern part of the Old World. Again, the
Indian deposits already mentioned have also yielded
remains of a bird differing from the Ostrich in having
three in place of two toes, and thereby agreeing with
the Cassowaries and Emus, to which it was doubtless
allied, and thus indicating that these birds likewise

GIANT BIRDS. 157

had ^heir original home on the great Euro- Asiatic
continent, from whence they have gradually migrated
southwards till they reached regions free from the
large carnivorous mammals of the continents.

Looking back through the Tertiary rocks of Europe
to see if we can find there traces of ancestral Giant
Birds, it is not till we come to the Lowest Eocene, or
period immediately below the London Clay, that our
search is rewarded. Here, however, both in England,
France, and Belgium, we meet with limb-bones and
other remains of Giant Birds, which, from their huge
size, must almost certainly have belonged to the group
under consideration. In this bird, which is known as
Gastornis, the lower end of the leg-bone has a bony
bridge, as in the Moas ; and since this is a feature com-
mon to the great majority of flying birds, it suggests
a community of origin between them and the Giant
Birds ; the loss of this bridge in the living members of
the latter thus being an acquired character. Although
we are still very much in the dark as to the real
affinities of the Gastornis, yet it appears to be more
nearly related to the Moas and the Dromornis than
to any other birds, and it might, therefore, have well
been one of the ancestors of the group. Another
closely allied bird is found in the Eocene of the
United States, while others have left their remains in
the Tertiary deposits of South America.

This is at present the extent of our knowledge of
the former distribution of Giant Birds ; but it may be
confidently expected that whenever the Tertiary forma-

158 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PKESENT.

tions of Northern Africa and Southern and Central
Asia are fully explored, we shall be rewarded by the
discovery of other kinds, which will tend to more or
less completely blend together those at present known
to us, and which will also show how these have gradu-
ally migrated, since the Eocene Period, from the great
continental northern mass to those southerly areas
wherein some have existed up to a comparatively late
period, and where others still remain as the sole living
witnesses in the Old World of a group which has all
but passed away.

CHAPTEE XL
EGG-LAYING MAMMALS, OR MONOTREMES.

UNTIL recently it was an axiom in Zoology that
Mammals * were broadly distinguished from Birds and
Reptiles by the circumstance that their young were
born into the world in a living condition ; whereas in
the two latter groups the young were developed from
eggs laid by the parent, although in a few Reptiles the
eggs were hatched within the body of the parent itself.
Within the last few years, however, it has been found
that two most remarkable Mammals confined to the
Australasian region differ from all other members of
the same great class, and resemble Birds and Reptiles
in that they actually lay true eggs from which the
living young are in due course hatched. This remark-
able discovery has shown that the living animals in
question are more widely separated from all other
existing Mammals than had previously been considered
the case; and since we have in late years become
acquainted with an extinct group of fossil reptiles
which shows some remarkable signs of affinities with
these egg-laying, or oviparous Mammals, our ideas of

* Popularly known as quadrupeds, see page 13.

159

160 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the mutual relationships of Mammals and Keptiles
have undergone a very considerable change.

Before proceeding further, it will be necessary that
we should become acquainted with the names and
external features of these peculiar and aberrant types
of mammalian life, which have fortunately been pre-
served to us among many other strange forms peculiar
to the Australasian region, and have thus enabled us
to trace, however imperfectly, the connection which
seems once to have existed between Mammals and
Eeptiles. The most peculiar in external appearance
of these two mammals is the one commonly known as
the Duck-bill, and scientifically as the Ornithorhynchus
anatinus (Fig. 48). The most striking feature about
this strange animal is the presence of the duck-like
horny beak ensheathing the mouth, from which the
creature takes both its popular and scientific names ;
and which, when skins were first brought to Europe,
was deemed so extraordinary as to give rise to a sus-
picion that the specimens were "made up," after the
fashion of the well-known monstrous animals of the
Japanese. Peculiar as the beak undoubtedly is, it is
not, however, of primary interest, since it is one of
those structures already alluded to as acquired features,
and is not inherited from very remote antiquity; so
that there is no sort of connection between this beak
and the beak of a bird, beyond the fact that both are
used for the same purpose. The Duck-bill has a total
length of about 23 inches, of which 2J are formed by
the beak, and five by the tail. The body is covered

EGG-LAYING MAMMALS OR MONOTREMES. 161

with a thick coat of fur, generally of a full umber-
brown colour, and inclining either to rufous or to black
in different individuals ; the under-parts and a ring
round the eye being yellowish, or grayish- white. The
tail is broad and flat, and thus well adapted to act as a
rudder in swimming ; while the feet are fully webbed,
and thus proclaim the aquatic habits of the creature.
The beak is black above, and yellow and black below.
The limbs are remarkable for their shortness, their
length being even insufficient to keep the body from
touching the ground.

In the adult animal there are no teeth in the jaws,
their function being performed by a few hard and flat
horny plates, aided by the horny edges of the jaws
themselves. In young individuals there are, however,
a small number of well-developed teeth in the hinder
half of each jaw, which fall out before the animal
attains its full dimensions. The structure of these
teeth is unlike that found in any other living mammal ;
the chief peculiarity being the presence of a groove run-
ning from back to front, and bordered by ridges bearing
cusps on either side. The presence of these deciduous
teeth has only recently been made known ; and we
may safely infer that the ancestors of the Duck-bill
were provided with a full set of permanent teeth, which
have gradually tended to disappear. This rudimentary
condition of the teeth in the Duck-bill is indeed another
instance of that tendency to the loss of the teeth in
certain groups of animals to which allusion has been
made in Chapter VII. ; and the complete loss of the

i62 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

teeth occurs in the second representation of the present
group, to be noticed immediately.

The Duck-bill chiefly frequents the still and open
pools, thickly covered with aquatic plants, which are
of common occurrence in the Australian rivers. In the
banks of these pools the burrows of these creatures
are constructed ; the entrance being concealed among
the water-plants, and frequently opening some distance
below the level of the Water. From the entrance the
burrow takes an upward direction in a somewhat ser-
pentine course, and may run for a distance of some
20 feet before it ends in a chamber situated far above
the level of the water, and lined with dry grass. In
this chamber, which may have a diameter of some 18
inches, the eggs are laid, and the young in due course
hatched therefrom. The young when first hatched are
entirely naked, and their beak is soft and fleshy, so
that it can be readily applied to the milk-glands of the
mother, which merely open on the surface of the body,
and are not provided with nipples. This feature of the
nurturing of the young by milk-glands, in spite of the
peculiarities of internal structure to which we shall
allude later on, and the oviparous reproduction, at once
proclaims that the Duck-bill is a true mammal, although
a very lowly representative of the class.

The second representative of the group includes the
Spiny Anteaters (Echidna), of which one species occurs
in Australia and New Guinea, and a second and larger
one only in New Guinea. A figure of the Australian
species is given in Fig. 49.

1 64 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

From the appearance of this animal in the figure,
there would seem but little ground for classifying it in
the same group as the Duck-bill ; and it is mainly from
the evidence of the peculiar internal structure that the
two are put together in the zoological system. The
skull, in place of the expanded beak of the Duck-bill,
has a long slender cylindrical beak, covered with horn,
with the nostrils at the extremity. There are no
traces of teeth at any stage of existence ; and the
tongue is very long and slender, and capable of being
protruded for a considerable distance from the mouth,
to collect the ants on which the creature feeds. The
fur is more or less thickly intermingled with stout
spines, like those of a hedgehog ; the tale is rudimen-
tary; and the short limbs are furnished with stout
and extremely powerful claws, which may be either
three or five in number.

In calling these animals Anteaters the reader will
bear in mind that they have nothing whatever to do
with the true Anteaters of South America, which
belong to the so-called Edentate order of Mammals ;
and that they are equally distinct from the Bandecl
Anteafer of Australia, which belongs to the Pouched
or Marsupial Mammals. In view of this similarity of
names it will perhaps be better if the Latin term
Echidna be taken as the popular as well as the
scientific name of the Spiny Anteaters.

The Australian Echidna is characterised by having
five claws to each foot, and is subject to considerable
variation in size and colour, and also as to the relative

EGG-LAYING MAMMALS, OR MONOTREMES. 165

abundance of spines in the fur. The New Guinea, or
Three- toed Echidna, is larger than many specimens of
the common species, and usually has but three claws
to each foot.

Echidnas are usually found in rocky and mountain-
ous districts, and are of nocturnal and burrowing
habits ; their powerful claws enabling them to bury
themselves in the ground with extraordinary rapidity.
If dug out from their burrows during the day, they
appear sluggish and stupid, crouching to the ground
with the head between the legs, and thus presenting a
mass of spines to an enemy. The eggs of the Echidna
have, indeed, been found and described ; but it appears
that the development of the young is less well known
than in the case of the Duck-bill.

Having now introduced our readers to the personal
appearance and habits of the Duck-bill and the Echidna,
we are in a position to enter into the consideration of
some of the more striking features of their structure,
and of their relationship to other groups of animals.

We have already stated that these creatures agree
with other mammals in suckling their young from
milk-glands on the body of the female parent, and are
therefore rightly included in the great class of Mammals.
They also agree with other mammals in that the skull
articulates with the first joint of the back-bone, or
first vertebra, by means of two knob-like prominences
known as condyles. In this respect they differ from
Birds and Eeptiles, in which this articulation takes
place only by a single condyle; but it is very note-

1 66 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

worthy that two condyles are found in the Amphibians
(Frogs, Newts, &c.).* In their warm blood these
creatures also agree with other mammals ; but this is
a feature of no importance from a classificatory point
of view, since it is found in Birds and Mammals which
we must regard as being independently derived from
cold-blooded animals. Again, although the Duck-bill
and the Echidna, as necessarily follows from their warm
blood, have a four-chambered heart like all other
mammals, yet it is noteworthy that the heart contains
certain peculiarities connecting it in some degree with
the three- chambered heart of Eeptiles. These animals
differ, however, from all other mammals in that the
tubes for carrying off the waste products of the body
have but a single common aperture, precisely as in
Birds and Reptiles, and they are therefore generally de-
scribed as the Monotremes, or Monotremata, by which
name we shall henceforth refer to them.

Two other remarkable peculiarities connected with
the skeleton require notice in some detail. Exclusive
of the Monotremes, all mammals, without exception,
have only two bones on either side of the body by
means of which the arm is connected with the trunk,
and which are collectively spoken of as the shoulder-
girdle. These bones are respectively the shoulder-blade
at the back, and the collar-bone in front ; the head of
the arm-bone being received into a cup-like cavity in
the lower end of the shoulder-blade. Now in the
Monotremes we find, in addition to the shoulder-blade,

* See page 67.

i68 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

a smaller bone known as the coracoid-bone, which
forms part of the cavity for the head of the arm-bone,
precisely as in the reptilian shoulder-girdle represented
in Fig. 50. Further, in advance of the coracoid-bone,
and below the shoulder-blade, the Monotremes have a
third bone in the part of the shoulder-girdle correspond-
ing to the one marked p. cor. in Fig. 50, which should
likewise be known as the precoracoid, although it is
often termed the epicoracoid. We thus see that in
this part of their shoulder- girdle the Monotremes are
totally unlike all other mammals, and resemble that
extinct group of Eeptiles of which this part of the
skeleton is shown in the woodcut. A further resem-
blance to Eeptiles is, however, indicated by the presence
of a peculiar T-shaped bone lying on the front of the
chest between the collar-bones or clavicles, and hence
termed the interclavicle ; this interclavicle occurring
not only in that group of Eeptiles to which the figured
shoulder-girdle belongs, but also in Lizards, Fish-Lizards,
and other types.

With regard to the shoulder-girdle represented in
Fig. 50, it should be observed that in all existing
Eeptiles the precoracoid (p. cor.) becomes united either
with the coracoid or the shoulder-blade, so that in
many cases it cannot even be recognised as a distinct
element at all. The same is the case with all extinct
groups of Eeptiles, with the sole exception of one very
remarkable group found in the early Secondary rocks
of South Africa, India, North America, and parts of
Eussia, and known, from their peculiar types of teeth,

EGG-LAYING MAMMALS, OR MONOTREMES. 169

as the Anomodonts, or Anomodontia. In Amphibians
(Frogs, &c.) there is, however, likewise a distinct pre-
coracoid, which in some extinct types not improbably
approximated to the form
shown in Fig. 50 ; although
in frogs the precoracoid
forms a simple rod-like
bone.

We find, therefore, that
the only known animals
possessing both a coracoid
and a precoracoid as sepa-
rate elements distinct from
the shoulder-blade* are
the Monotreme Mammals,
the Anomodont Reptiles,
and the Amphibians ; and
since we have shown that
in other respects the Mo-
notremes are to a con-
siderable extent interme-
diate between Reptiles and
other Mammals, there
arises a strong presump-
tion that the Echidna and the Duck-bill are the last
i

remnants of a group of animals which were veritable
connecting links between Mammals, Reptiles, and
Amphibians. Now among the Anomodont Reptiles —

FIG. 50.— The right side of part of the
shoulder-girdle of an Anomodont
Reptile, ae, shoulder-blade ; ab, pro-
cesses of do.; cor., coracoid bone;
p. cor., precoracoid bone ; </l, cavity for
head of arm-bone. The shaded portion
is from an Indian and the unshaded
from an African specimen.

* In adult Monotreines the coracoid unites by bone with the
shoulder-blade.

170 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and in these alone among the whole class — we find
in many cases that the jaws were armed with teetli
which were arranged in three groups corresponding
to the incisive, or front teeth, the tusks, or eye-
teeth, and the grinding teeth, of Mammals; so that
we have here another indication of the affinity of
this group with the latter. Another remarkable
peculiarity of the Anomodonts is that the perforation
in the lower end of the bone of the upper arm is
situated on the inner side — or side corresponding to
the little finger — as in Monotremes and many other
mammals (as the Cat) ; whereas in most other reptiles
this perforation is situated on the outer side — or side
corresponding to the thumb. The upper arm-bone
itself of the Anomodonts is also wonderfully like that
of Monotremes.

There are, indeed, many other features into the con-
sideration of which it would be quite out of place to
enter in this work which also lead to the same con-
clusion. We must, however, remember that Anomo-
donts agree with all other reptiles in having only one
condyle by which the skull articulates with the back-
bone ; and this difference may be a bar to regarding
them as the direct ancestral types of Mammals. The
extinct Amphibians known as Labyrinthodonts, in which
there were two condyles to the skull, are, however, as
stated in Chapter IV., so closely allied to the Anomo-
donts that it is in some instances difficult to draw a line
of distinction between the two ; and the conclusion has
therefore been reached that the Labyrinthodorit Amphi-

EGG-LAYING MAMMALS, OR MONOTREMES. 171

bians, Anomodont Reptiles, and Monotreme Mammals
have all taken origin from one common amphibian
stock ; the Anomodonts retaining marked evidences of
their kinship to the Mammals which have been totally
lost in all other reptiles.

Such, then, is very briefly the chief deductions
which can be drawn from the life-history and structure
of the Duck-bill and Echidna as to their affinities with
other groups of animals; and it is curious to reflect
that but for the preservation in a remote part of the
world of these two representatives of a group which
must in all probability have been once abundant, we
should have been utterly unable to trace this wonderful
relationship of the mammals to the earlier types of
reptiles and amphibians.

At present we have, indeed, no absolutely conclusive
evidence of the former existence of mammals allied to
the living Monotremes, although there is a certain
amount of evidence tending in this direction. Thus
in the Secondary rocks, dating from the Trias to the
Chalk, and also in the lowest beds of the overlying
Tertiary, we meet with a number of small mammals
characterised by a very peculiar type of grinding- teeth.
The crowns of these teeth (Fig. 5), consist of two or
three longitudinal ridges carrying distinct cusps, and
separated from one another by deep grooves, which
may be either one or two in number. This type of
tooth, which is quite unlike that found in any of the
higher mammals, presents a certain approximation
to the deciduous teeth of the Duck-bill ; so that it is

172

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

not improbable that in this group of extinct mam-
mals we may really have forms allied to the ancestral
Monotremes. Some further evidence in favour of this
view has, indeed, been recently published in the

United States, where cer-
tain bones of these mam-
mals have been described
as the coracoid and inter-
clavicle — an interpreta-
tion which, if correct, will
prove their affinity to the
Monotremes. For the pre-
sent we must, however,
wait in the confident ex-
pectation that future dis-
coveries will some day
reveal to us the remains
. of extinct animals allied

51. — Palatal view of the imperfect
skull of a Secondary Mammal (Trityl- on the Oil 6 hand to the
odon). Two-thirds natural size.

existing Monotremes, and

on the other so closely connected with the Anomo-
dont reptiles and the Labyrinthodont amphibians as
to render it very difficult to give a definition of either
mammals, reptiles, or amphibians.

CHAPTER XII.
POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS.

IN the preceding chapter the reader was introduced to
the living representatives of the Egg-laying Mammals,
collectively forming the group to which zoologists apply
the name of Monotremes. In the present chapter it
is our intention to bring before his notice another and
much larger group of Mammals, forming one step
higher in the zoological scale, and like the Monotremes
characteristic of Australia and some of the adjacent
islands, although having one outlying family in America.
These creatures are known as the Pouched Mammals,
or, in scientific phrase, Marsupials, the name being
derived from the pouch (Latin marsupiitm) in which
the greater number of the species carry their helpless
young for a long period after they have first been
introduced into the world; this peculiar method of
nursing being familiar to all who have seen the
Kangaroos in the Zoological Society's Gardens. This
pouch is not, however, universally present throughout
the group, so that it cannot be taken as the especial
characteristic feature of all the members ; and we are

thus driven to find some other character which will

173

174 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

hold good for all. Such is found in the circumstance
that in all cases the young are born in a very imperfect
and partially developed state, so that they resemble
little sacs or lumps; the young of the great lied
Kangaroo not being larger than our thumb. In this
exceedingly helpless and imperfect condition they are
transferred to the nipples of the female (which are
placed within the pouch when this is present), whereon
they hang without much signs of life, gradually grow-
ing as they are nourished by the milk, which is squirted
down their throats by a special muscle.

In addition to this peculiarly early birth of the
young, and the very general presence of a pouch, the
Marsupials present several other curious structural
features, into the consideration of which it is not easy
to enter in a work like the present. It may, however,
be observed that they differ from other Mammals in
the circumstance that when milk-teeth (as the tem-
porary set of teeth which occur in the human infant
are termed) are developed, there is only one such tootli
in either side of each jaw, corresponding to the last
milk-tooth of the child (see Chapter XIV.). It appears,
indeed, that we have here the first commencement of
the development of a series of milk-teeth, which, in
their full stage, as seen in the child, are intended for
use during the period that the jaws are increasing in
size ; so that the permanent set may be of larger size
than would otherwise be possible. The absence of a
full series of milk-teeth at once indicates the low
organisation of the Marsupials ; and this is fully con-

POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS. 175

firmed by the structure of their brain, and many othei
parts of the body.

As already observed, the Marsupials are mainly con-
fined to the Australian region, the only exception being
the Opossums of America ; and not only are they mainly
confined to that region, but they and the Monotremes
are the only Mammals found there, with the exception
of a few Bats, two or three rat-like Rodents, and the
remarkable native Dog, or Dingo, the latter having not
improbably been introduced by human agency. This
remarkably circumscribed area of distribution would
of itself lead us to conclude that the existing Mar-
supials are survivors of an old and therefore lowly
type of Mammalian life, since so many of the products
of Australia and New Zealand are so utterly unlike
those of other parts of the globe, and present affinities
to types long extinct elsewhere. Thus, in Queensland
alone, we have the peculiar fish known as the Bara-
munda (see page 6), which is the direct survivor of
fossil fishes found in the oldest Secondary rocks of
Europe; while in New Zealand the scarce Tuatara
Lizard is almost equally closely related to fossil Lizards
of the same European rocks. These primd facie con-
clusions as to the antiquity of the Marsupial type are
fully borne out by actual facts, since the Secondary rocks
of England, such as the well-known Stonesfield slate
of Oxfordshire, and the Purbeck beds of Dorsetshire,
as well as many of the equivalent rocks in the United
States, have yielded jaws of a number of small fossil
Mammals, many of which were evidently very closely

1 76 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

related to some of the living Australian Marsupials.
In the Eocene, or lowest portion of the Tertiary period,
Australian types of Marsupials seem to have dis-
appeared from Europe; but we there meet with re-
mains of fossil species of the American group of
Opossums. These data indicate that Marsupials were
widely spread over the globe at an early period of the
world's history, and while the greater number of types
disappeared from both the Old and New World to find
a refuge in Australia, the Opossums lingered on for
some time in Europe, but finally retreated to America,
in the southern portion of which continent they are
represented by a considerable number of species. At
the time that Australia was cut off from land com-
munication with the rest of the world it is probable
that the higher types of Mammals — such as Carnivores
(Dogs, Cats, Weasels, &c.), Eodents (Eats, Hares, &c.),
and Ungulates (Horses, Cattle, Elephants, &c.) — had not
yet come into existence, and these types were accord-
ingly never able to obtain an entrance into that island-
continent. Thus protected from the competition of
the higher Mammals, the Marsupials have there de-
veloped a large number of types differing very widely
from one another in external appearance, although in
all cases retaining the features peculiar to the order.

The earliest evidence of a Marsupial of the Australian
type brought to the notice of Europeans was far back
in the last century, when one of the animals known as
Phalangers (which the Australian colonists will persist
in calling Opossums) was captured in the island of

POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS. 177

Amboyna — an outlier of the Australian region — and
described by a naturalist. The state of zoology at
that date was, however, far too imperfect to admit of
the importance of the discovery meeting with due
recognition.

A still more important discovery was, however, made
in the year 1770, during one of the voyages of the
great Captain Cook, when Sir Joseph Banks and others
of the party landed on the coast of New South Wales,
and for the first time were made acquainted with the
now well-known Kangaroos. The species which was
then first revealed to the eyes of Europeans was the
largest of the group, and is commonly known as the
Great Ked Kangaroo; but many other species have
been since observed, one of which is represented in
Fig. 52. We can well imagine the astonishment with
which Banks and his party gazed for the first time on
the herd of Kangaroos in their native wild ; the strange
form of these creatures, with their long hind limbs,
short fore paws, and enormous tail, together with the
huge leaps by which they progress, marking them out
as totally different from any Old World animal. The
Kangaroo may, indeed, be regarded as what naturalists
term a very specialised kind of animal, since we find
several more or less nearly allied creatures, in which
the fore and hind limbs are not so disproportionate in
length, and which, therefore, depart less widely from a
normal type of structure. The advantage of the leap-
ing mode of progression and the upright position of
the body to the Kangaroo appears to be that the

POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS. 179

young can thus be much more safely carried in the
pouch during the long journeys that these animals are
compelled to take across the Australian wastes, in
search of water, than would be the case if the body
was placed in the ordinary horizontal position.

Kangaroos are members of one primary group of
Marsupials mainly characterised by the form and

FIG. 53.— Side view of the skull of a gigantic extinct Kangaroo-like animal.
One-tenth the natural size. (From Owen.)

arrangement of their teeth. Thus the front or incisor
teeth, as they are technically called, are of a chisel-like
form, and separated by a considerable interval from
the hinder or grinding-teeth, as is well shown in the
accompanying figure (53). There is only one pair of
these incisor teeth in the lower jaw — or at all events
only one pair which is of any functional importance —
while, as in the figure, there are usually three pairs

i8o ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

of such teeth in the upper jaw. From the presence of
this single pair of lower cutting teeth, the Marsupials
of this group are known as Diprotodonts (two front
teeth).

To this group belong the true Kangaroos, of which
the largest species is taller than a man ; the smaller
Kangaroos popularly known as Wallabies, as well
as the still smaller Bat-Kangaroos, being its other
members. All these creatures live on the ground, and
progress by leaps; but in New Guinea and North
Queensland, we meet with the curious Tree-Kangaroos,
in which the fore and hind limbs are of nearly equal
length, and the habits of the creatures themselves are
purely arboreal. The Phalangers (Opossums of the
colonists) form another family of this group, most of
the members of which are nocturnal and live entirely in
trees. The majority of these Phalangers simply climb
from bough to bough, or hang suspended by their
prehensile tail ; but some species — hence termed flying
Phalangers — have a fold of skin connecting the limbs,
and are thus enabled to take long flying leaps from
tree to tree, like the flying Squirrels, to which they
present an extraordinary external resemblance. These
creatures afford, indeed, a remarkable instance how
the same place in the rdle of nature may be occupied
by totally different groups of animals, which, from the
necessary adaptation of their structure to the same
mode of life, attain a more or less close similarity of
form.

Allied to the Phalangers is the curious Koala, a

POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS. 181

stout, clumsily built creature somewhat resembling a
small bear, by which name it is indeed commonly
known to the colonists. The Wombats, which are the
only other living representatives of the Diprotodont
group, differ from all the other forms in having only
a single pair of upper front teeth. These animals are
about the size of a Badger, and furnished with immensely
powerful claws, with which they dig the deep burrows
in which they dwell.

We have already said that the largest living
Kangaroo is somewhat taller than a man, but some of
the extinct species found in several parts of Australia
attained considerably larger dimensions. All these
creatures were, however, comparative dwarfs besides
the huge extinct Australian animal of which the skull
is shown in Fig. 53. This animal, technically known
as the Diprotodon, and fully as large as a Ehinoceros,
was allied in the structure of its teeth to the Kangaroos ;
the fore-limbs were, however, nearly as long as the
hind ones, so that the creature doubtless walked in the
ordinary manner.

The whole of the Diprotodonts, both recent and
fossil, are confined to the Australian region, so that we
must regard them, in all probability, as a specialised
offshoot which has arisen there from the ancestors of
the more generalised group now to be noticed.

All the remaining Marsupials differ from the Di-
protodonts in that their teeth form a more regular
series, without any very marked interval ; the front
teeth being small, and flanked laterally by a larger

182 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

conical tooth corresponding to the tusk, or canine-
tooth (Fig. 54, a) of the dog. The hinder teeth,
moreover, have sharply pointed crowns, and are
adapted for a carnivorous diet. There may be as
many as five front (incisor) teeth on either side of
the upper, and four in the lower jaw ; and from this
large number of front teeth it has been proposed to
call this assembly of Marsupials the Polyprotodont
(numerous front teeth) group. Eemains of extinct
members of this group are common in the Secondary
rocks of North America and Europe, the lower jaw
represented in Fig. 54 illustrating the large number of
teeth so characteristic of several of these animals.

We take, as an example of the group, the Tasmanian
Thylacine (Fig. 55), commonly known to the colonists
as the Wolf. The latter name, as well as the Latinised
Thylacine (Pouched Wolf), is applied to this animal

Fia. 54.— The left side of the lower jaw, with the front teeth broken off, of
a Secondary Marsupial. (After Marxli.)

from its peculiarly dog-like appearance, which is
especially shown in the long and pointed muzzle, the
general contour of the body, arid the long tapering
tail, like that of a pointer. The Thylacine, which is
the largest of the Polyprotodonts, may indeed be
regarded as playing the part of the wolf in Tasmania,

1 84 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and the damage inflicted by it on the flocks of the
settlers is, or was, very considerable. Equally de-
structive is the smaller animal known as the Tasma-
nian Devil, which is more like a large cat in size and
appearance. The civet-like animals known as Dasyures
are allied forms ranging over all the Australian main-
land, where they are the largest carnivores. Another
family of Polyprotodonts is represented by the elegant
little creatures known to the colonists as Bandicoots,
some of which are not larger than a mouse. A larger
species, known as the Rabbit-eared Bandicoot, has
long hind legs, and leaps somewhat after the manner
of a kangaroo.

The most interesting of all the Australian Poly-
protodonts is, however, the so-called Banded Anteater,
since this animal makes the nearest approach to the
extinct Marsupials of the Secondary rocks. This
elegant little creature, in which the back is marked
by alternate light and dark transverse stripes, feeds on
ants, which it gathers up by means of its long and
slender tongue. With the exception of certain forms,
such as the Dolphins and Porpoises, which have a great
number of simple conical teeth, the Banded Anteater
has more teeth than any .other living mammal ; and
it may probably be looked upon as the most ancient
type of mammal now living upon the globe.

Here we must mention the so-called Marsupial Mole
— a small burrowing animal, of a golden-red colour,
with enormous front claws, recently discovered in the
deserts of Central Australia.

POUCHED MAMMALS, OB MARSUPIALS. 185

The only other Marsupials are the Opossums of
America, which are readily distinguished by the
absence of a pouch in which to carry the young. In
consequence of this, the young of some species are
carried upon the back of the female, with their tails
tightly twisted round the tail of their parent, which
is arched for this purpose over its back. All the
Opossums are of carnivorous habits, while the Crab-
eating Opossum is peculiar in being partly aquatic,
As we have already said, Opossums are most abundant
in South America, where the mammalian fauna is
mostly of a low grade of organisation ; and they make
their first appearance in the Eocene Tertiary of
Europe.

Such, very briefly, is the history of the Marsupials
of the present day — a history deeply interesting to
the zoologist as showing how, humanly speaking, a
type of animals, characteristic of an early part of the
earth's existence, has been preserved to us in one
remote region by the complete isolation of an island-
continent, and in another by the retiring habits of its
representatives and the absence of severe competition
in the struggle for existence.

CHAPTER XIII.

DOGS AND BEARS.

COMPARATIVELY few animals belonging to a single order
are more unlike one another, both as regards external
as well as internal characters, than the bears and the
dogs, their dissimilarity being indeed so marked, that
not even the most unscientific person experiences the
slightest difficulty in distinguishing between the two
groups. Both groups, it. need scarcely be observed,
are members of the great order of Carnivorous mam-
mals, although the bears depart from the ordinary rule
in subsisting on a mixed diet. The former group, as is
well known, comprises a comparatively small number
of species, among which the European brown bear, the
closely allied Syrian bear, and the Isabelline bear of
the Himalaya, the North American grizzly bear, the
Indian sloth bear, and the Polar bear are typical ex-
amples, which are usually well represented in the
living state in the gardens of the Zoological Society,
and whose skeletons and stuffed skins may be seen in
the Natural History Museum. In the latter, and far
more numerous group, are included the wild and
domestic dogs, the wolves, jackals, foxes, and fennecs,

1 86

DOGS AND BEARS. 187

together with some less typical forms, which need not
be further alluded to on this occasion.

So wide, indeed, is the gap between these two groups,
that naturalists have not only placed them in distinct
families, but have even brigaded the family of the
bears, together with that of the weasels, badgers, otters,
&c., and that of the racoons, in a common section to
which they have given the name of the arctoid or bear-
like carnivores, while they rank the dogs in another
section of equivalent value, to which the name of the
canoid, or dog-like carnivores, is applied. That this
division is a perfectly natural one so far as regards the
animals existing at the present day there is no doubt ;
but when our investigations are carried back to the con-
sideration of the varied forms of carnivorous animals
whose remains occur in the rocks of the Tertiary, or
latest geological period of the earth's history, it has
been found that animals then existed which so com-
pletely bridge over this gap that there appear to be no
distinctive characters by which the bears and the dogs
can be absolutely separated from one another. It will
of course be apparent to the reader that when we have
to determine the mutual relations of extinct fossil
animals we have to depend solely upon the structure of
their bones and teeth, and we can therefore say nothing
as to the appearance of these old-world forms when
clothed with flesh and fur. Fortunately, however, in
the present, as in many other instances, the bones and
teeth are amply sufficient to give us a very fair idea
of the relationship of the fossil to the living forms,

1 88 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

although the ardent palaeontologist cannot but help
wishing that he had the power of casting a glance on
those long-past periods when our earth was compara-
tively young and inhabited by the marvellous host of
extinct animals whose modern descendants have so
woefully diminished both in size and numbers.

Making, however, the best of our opportunities, and
not wasting time in futile regrets at being unable to
recall that which has passed away for ever, we may,
before proceeding to the consideration of the fossil
forms, briefly contrast a few of the more striking
features in the organisation of a dog (under which
term it will be convenient to include wolves, jackals,
foxes, et hoc genus omne) with those of a bear, as in all
such investigations it is advisable to make ourselves
thoroughly acquainted with the well-known before we
attempt the consideration of the comparatively un-
known.

A dog, in this general sense, is characterised exter-
nally by his comparatively slight and slender build,
long limbs, well-developed tail, and above all by the
circumstance that he walks only on his toes — or, as
naturalists say, is digitigrade — his wrist and heel being
carried far above the ground. The figure of the jackal
(Fig. 56) gives a good idea of the external form of the
dogs. A bear, on the contrary, is of an exceedingly
bulky and clumsy build, has short and thick limbs, a
mere apology for a tail, and in walking applies the
whole length of his foot to the ground, or, in other
words, is plantigrade. It will be unnecessary to enter

DOGS AND BEARS. 189

here into the consideration of the well-marked differ-
ences in the structure of the soft internal parts of
these animals, or, indeed, of the greater part of the
skeleton, and we may therefore, in the main, confine
our attention to those of the skull and teeth, which,
as being the parts more commonly preserved in the
fossil state, demand the especial consideration of the

FIG. 56.— The Jackal. (From J (inline.)

palaeontologist. There is, however, an important point
in regard to the bones of the fore-limb of carnivores
which cannot be passed over, namely, that in the arm-
bone or humerus of the cat tribe and some extinct
dog-like species the inner side of the lower end is
perforated by a small hole, which is totally wanting
in the corresponding bones of the dog and the bear,

190 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

The skull of a dog conforms to the general structure
of the whole animal in its light and graceful shape, and
is characterised (among many other features) by the
presence of a bladder-like bone, covering the under
part of the internal ear, which is scientifically known
as the " bulla." The solid bony roof of the palate does
not extend farther back than the last tooth, and the
teeth are arranged in a gracefully curved line. There
are altogether eleven teeth on each side of the upper,
and twelve in the lower jaw ; the first three being called
the cutting-teeth, the fourth the eye-tooth, which is
readily distinguished by its tall crown, the next four
the false grinders, and the remainder (two in the upper
and three in the lower jaw) the true grinders. The
general arrangement of these is indeed precisely similar
to that which obtains in the Civet, a figure of the
upper teeth of which is given in Chapter XIV. (Fig. 64).
The most important features of these teeth are that the
last two in the upper jaw are triangular in shape (as is
shown in woodcut 57), the hinder being much smaller
than the preceding one, and that they are mainly
adapted for crushing, although they have an imperfect
cutting-edge on their outer side ; while the third tooth
from the hinder end of the jaw, which is termed the
" flesh-tooth," is longer than either of the other two, and
has a much higher crown, with a sharp cutting-edge,
which bites with a scissor-like action against the simi-
larly elongated and high-crowned "flesh-tooth" of the
lower jaw. This type of tooth structure indicates a crea-
ture whose diet consists mainly of animal subtances.

DOGS AND BEARS. 191

Turning now to the bear's skull, we shall find on exa-
mination that it is altogether of a stouter and more
massive type, while the bladder-like " bulla " which we
noticed in the dog, is altogether wanting, and is re-
placed by a nearly flat plate, and the bony roof of the
palate extends considerably behind the last tooth ; the
grinding teeth themselves being arranged in a nearly
straight line. In young animals there is the same
number of teeth as in the dog; but in the adult the
second and third false grinders are frequently shed.

FIG. 57.— The last four left upper teeth of a Wolf. «, false grinder ; 6, flesh-
tooth ; c, first grinder ; d, second do.

The hinder teeth, however, differ very widely from
those of the dog, the last two in the upper jaw being
rhomboidal instead of triangular in shape, and having
still flatter crowns, while the last is the larger (instead
of the smaller), and is very much elongated. The
upper " flesh-tooth " shows this contrast still more
markedly, for instead of having its crown both longer
and taller than the crowns of the two hinder grinders,
it is very much shorter, with a crown not higher, and
lacking the sharp cutting-blade found in the corres-

192 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

ponding tooth of the dog. In the teeth of the lower
jaw very similar differences may be observed, the
crown of the "flesh-tooth" being no higher than
that of the succeeding tooth, while its length is only
equal to that of the latter, instead of exceeding it by
twice its own length. The " eye-teeth " are moreover
stouter, with relatively lower crowns than those of the
dog. It is of course obvious that the broad flat crowns
of the hinder grinding- teeth of the bear are adapted to
a vegetable or mixed, rather than to a purely flesh diet ;
and it is noteworthy that in the Polar bear, which
subsists to a large extent on fish and putrid seal- or
whale-flesh, there is a tendency to a rather greater
development of the cusps of its hinder teeth than in
its congeners, whose food consists to a great extent of
vegetable or soft animal substances. In the Indian
sloth-bear, on the other hand, which feeds largely upon
honey, insects, &c., the teeth are reduced to a very small
size in proportion to the dimensions of the skull.

If now we carry ourselves back in imagination to a
period in the earth's history, which although compara-
tively late from a geological point of view, yet is very
early indeed from a human one, we find evidence of
the existence in northern India, as well as in several
parts of Europe, of a huge bear-like animal, which has
received the somewhat inappropriate name of the
hyama-bear (in scientific language Hycenarctus). This
creature lived in India at a time when the Himalaya
was but a comparatively low chain of hills, and ages
before England was separated from the Continent, in a

DOGS AND BEARS. 193

period which is termed by geologists the Pliocene.
Now if we ask ourselves in what respects this bear-like
creature differed from any modern bear, we must
answer that while its skull and limb-bones have the
massive and bulky characters of existing bears, yet we
find certain features showing that we are at least one
step away from these modern specialised types. Thus,
to take one instance from the limbs, the bone forming
the elbow has an extremely prominent termination, or
" funny-bone," and in this respect resembles the corres-
ponding bone of the dogs and differs from that of the
bears. The teeth, however, show us in a much more
unmistakable manner what a marked approach this
animal makes to the dogs. Thus, the " flesh-tooth " in
both jaws has a long and cutting crown totally unlike
that of the bears ; having, indeed, the same structure as
in the dogs (Figs. 57, 60), although of a rather more com-
plex type than in any existing species. Moreover, the
two grinders of the upper jaw, instead of presenting
long oblong crowns, have nearly square crowns in most
species, while in one very peculiar species from India
they tend to assume the triangular
form of the dog's grinders. In the
small species, of which the upper
grinders are shown in wood-cut
58, the crowns are longer than

, , . , FIG. 58.— The two left upper

USUal, although much Shorter tliail grinders of an extinct Bear

in the true bears. The hyama-

bear, which rivalled in bulk the huge American grizzly,

was. therefore, to all intents and purposes, a bear show-

i94 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

ing most unmistakable evidence of its relationship to
the dogs in the structure of its teeth ; and we may
thus be justified in assuming that this terrible animal
was largely carnivorous in its habits. Closely akin
to this hyaena-bear is another huge extinct animal
from the uppermost Tertiary of South America, in
which it is said that the bone of the arm retains
the perforation now found in the cats, and thus
gives us one . more clue to the descent of the bear.
In this creature, which is known as the Arctothere, the

FIG. 59.— The left half of the upper jaw of an extinct South American Hear-like
animal. Much reduced.

grinding teeth of the upper jaw (Fig. 59) have quite
lost the elongated crowns found in the true bears ; and
the " flesh-tooth " (the third from the right side of the
figure) approximates very strongly to that of the dogs.
Taking one more step back in time to the middle
division, or moycn age of the Tertiary period, technically
known as the Miocene epoch, we meet with a creature
which unfortunately has no English name, and which
we must therefore be content to recognise under the
designation of the Dinocyon. This animal was of the

DOGS AND BEARS. 195

size of a bear, but had teeth like those of a dog, although
it was in all probability plantigrade, and it had a per-
forated arm-bone. Here, then, we have at length
reached an animal where our definition of a dog and
a bear begins to fail us, in spite of the "stretching"
we have given these definitions when discussing the
hyaena-bear. Yet one step still further back — to the
lower part of the Miocene and the upper part of the
preceding or Eocene epoch — the dawn of the Tertiary
period — and we find an animal, the so-called Amphi-
cyon in regard to which it appears to be impossible to
say whether it partakes most of the nature of a dog or
of a bear. The best known species of the amphicyon was
of the approximate dimensions of a wolf, but others
were larger. They had teeth — more especially the
"flesh-teeth" (Fig. 60) — precisely like those of a dog,
with the exception that there were three in place of
two grinders in the upper jaw, and the general build
was also dog-like, with a perforation in the lower end
of the arm-bone. The skull has, however, the bladder-
like "bulla" of the dogs, but the animal applied the
whole soles of its feet to the ground in walking after
the old-fashioned plantigrade manner, and made no
attempt to assume the more advanced digitigrade pro-
gression of the dogs.

Here, then, it is evident that we have to do with an
animal that is quite as much a dog as a bear, being, in
fact, a veritable " missing-link ; " and consequently a
source of sad trouble to those systematists who wish
to assign everv creature to a fixed place in their cut-

196 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and-dried schemes. Thus we find that while some
palaeontologists have regarded this troublesome amphi-
cyon as a plantigrade dog, and consequently place it
among the canoid animals, other writers consider it
as a dog-toothed bear, and refer it to the arctoid group.
The truth is, however, that we must recognise in this
early canivore the common ancestor from which both
bears and dogs have taken their origin; both groups
having thence tended more and more to diverge from
one another with the advance of time, till they finally
have assumed their present extreme differences, which,
as we have already observed, are apparent to the most
unscientifically disposed mind. Accepting this con-
vergence of the two groups as a proved fact, we must
accordingly regard the separation of the dogs and bears
into two distinct families as merely a convenient
classification for their existing representatives, rather
than a real primary division.

The interest of the ainphicyon does not, however,
cease with its relationship to the bears and dogs, since
it also shows evident signs of cousinship with other
lower Miocene and upper Eocene carnivorous animals,
which appear to connect the dogs with the civets, and
thus with the hyaenas and cats. One of these early
connecting types is known as the dog-civet (Cynodictis),
and appears to have been an animal closely allied botli
to the amphicyon and to the true civets ; so that we
have good evidence for regarding bears, dogs, and
civets as having originated from one common stock
more or less closely allied to our ainphicyon. "Since,

DOGS AND BEARS.

197

moreover, the hyaenas and cats (under which name we
include lions, tigers, and their allies) are evidently
derived from a stock more or less nearly related to the
earlier civets, we are enabled to trace back all these
wonderfully different types of carnivorous animals to
a very few ancestral stocks.

A like pedigree has been already traced out in many
other groups of animals, and as our knowledge (imper-
fect as it must necessarily always remain) gradually
increases by slow, although we hope sure, steps, we
shall look forward to do the same for other groups,
till we find the whole of the animals of the present
day forming the twigs of one huge ancestral trunk.

FIG. 60.- -Outer and upper views of the right lower flesh-tooth of the Amphicyon.
(After Kittl.)

CHAPTER XIV.

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS.

To most persons the chief interest in connection with
teeth is an unpleasant one, owing to the circumstance
that through an artificial mode of life these highly im-
portant organs are subject to a premature decay, and
thus fail to perform satisfactorily their proper function.
With less civilised and savage races this, however, is
not the case, and among such people the teeth, almost
without exception, last in a sound and useful condition
throughout life; being gradually worn down to their
very roots with advancing age, and thus showing a
natural connection between the capacity of the teeth
to withstand wear and the normal span of human
existence.

Regarded, however, from an anatomical, or, in modern
phraseology, a morphological point of view, teeth arc
among the most interesting parts of the animal organi-
sation with which the naturalist has to deal, owing to
the great and characteristic variations they display in
the different groups of Vertebrate, or Back-boned
Animals, and to the frequency with which they are
preserved in a fossil condition when other parts of the

skeleton have either perished or are only preserved in

198

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 199

a very imperfect condition. True teeth are found only
among the Vertebrate animals ; and we propose to take
a short glance at some of the most striking variations
displayed by them among certain groups of the class of
Mammals, although some mention will also be made of
those of the lower types.

Curious as it may seern at first sight, the researches
of modern naturalists have now conclusively proved
that primarily teeth are neither more nor less than
special modifications of certain bony structures found
in the external skin of some of the lower Vertebrates,
of which the best known example is afforded by the
hard granules in the skin of the Sharks, commonly
known as shagreen. The teeth of some fishes depart,
indeed, but very slightly from these simple bony
granules ; and a gradual transition can be traced from
these simple teeth to the most complex types of teeth
found in the whole Vertebrate group.

In speaking of these simple teeth as bony structures,
we take leave to employ the word bony in a somewhat
popular sense, since, strictly speaking, teeth are not
composed of true bone. Indeed, in the majority of
Vertebrates, teeth consist either of two or three per-
fectly distinct structural elements, which can be easily
recognised by the naked eye. Thus in the human teeth,
for instance, the outer surface of the exposed portion,
or crown, as it is technically called, is seen to be
uniformly coated with a bluish-white and highly
polished substance of exceeding hardness, conveniently
known as the enamel. On looking at the grinding

200 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

surface of a tooth which has been somewhat worn, it will
be seen that this enamel forms only a comparatively
thin outer layer, and that the inner part of the tooth
consists of a yellowish substance, which is much softer,
and is termed the ivory or dentine. Further, when a
human tooth is removed from its socket, it may be
observed that the root, or embedded portion, is overlain
by a very rough-looking bony substance, known as
cement, which directly overlies the dentine. In the
human teeth this cement is, indeed, confined to the
root, but in some other Mammals it also extends on to
the crown, where it overlies the enamel. We thus see
that the crown of a tooth may consist of three distinct
elements, of which the dentine forms the central part,
this being overlain by the enamel, and this again by
the cement.

In many Fishes teeth are distributed irregularly, or
at other times in a well-defined pattern, over the whole
of the surface of the mouth; and we also find that
certain Eeptiles have the roof of the mouth more or
less covered with teeth. In the majority of the higher
Keptiles — such as Lizards and Crocodiles — the teeth
are, however, confined to the margins of the upper and
lower jaws, where they form a single row, with the
base of each tooth either embedded by an undivided
root in a groove or socket of the jaw-bone, or absolutely
welded to the bone itself. A common type of Reptilian
tooth has the crown forming a more or less compressed
cone (Fig. 61), with a pair of sharp-cutting edges, which
may or may not be furnished with saw-like notches.

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS.

2OI

In the great majority of Eeptiles the whole of the
teeth are of the same pattern, although in some cases
— as the Crocodiles and Alliga-
tors— one or more of the teeth
in either jaw may be much
larger than the others ; and in
a few extinct types (Fig. 62)
the teeth are divided into three
distinct series. As one tooth FIG- 61- ~The crown of a tooth of

an extinct Reptile, with a mag-

COmeS illtO USe it is Succeeded nifled view of the notches on

the margin.

trom below by the germ or

another, which gradually grows up and absorbs its
roots till the old tooth finally drops out, this process
going on without intermission during the whole life of
the animal, so that a practically endless succession of
teeth is developed. Some of the varieties assumed by

FIG. 62.— Skull and teeth of an extinct South African Reptile.

the teeth of extinct reptiles are noticed and figured in
Chapter VIII., among which we may especially call
attention to the fluted and serrated type obtaining in
the Iguanodon (Fig. 32), and the spatulate modification
seen in the Hoplosaur (Fig. 34). Other extinct reptiles
have flattened and pavement-like teeth adapted for

202 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

crushing the shells of crustaceans and molluscs. Pass-
ing these reptilian teeth, interesting as they are, with
this cursory notice, we turn to those of mammals.

Starting from a tooth of the simple conical type of
the one represented in Fig. 61, it is possible to evolve
therefrom the whole of the curious modifications of
tooth-structure found in the higher Vertebrates. The
first stage in the process is the development of small
points, or cusps, on either side of such a cone, as is
seen in the hinder teeth of the skull of the extinct
reptile shown in Fig. 61. A further step is for these
side cusps to become nearly or quite as large as the
original main cone (Fig. 63, A), and then to be twisted
round upon the same, so that in the upper jaw

(as is shown in the hinder
teeth of the Civet, figured in
woodcut 64), each upper tooth
has one inner and two outer
cusps, while exactly the re-
verse arrangement obtains

lG. 63. — Teeth of Secondary Mam- .

mala, enlarged. A, Side view 111 the teeth OI the lower

of lower tooth of a species with • ,~. -., ™ mi 11-

the three cusps in the same 4ine. JclW (**%• °°> A)'

B, Do. of a lower tooth of a species t|on Qf extra CO116S Or CUSDS
in which the cusps form a triangle.

l.r, outer cusp ; pa, anterior do. ; to this triangular form of
nte, posterior do. • i i

tooth, with alterations or the

simple cusps into ridges, either by union with one
another, or by flattening in one direction or another, or
by increase in their height, will produce all the com-
plicated types of hinder teeth found in the higher
Mammals.

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 203

Before going any further, we must, however, notice
some of the points by which the teeth of Mammals are
distinguished from those of Eeptiles. Exclusive of
certain peculiar types like the Porpoises and Dolphins,
the teeth of Mammals are not similar to one another
throughout the jaws, but are arranged in groups of
different sizes and series. Thus in the upper jaw
(Fig. 64), there are commonly three simple front, or
incisor, teeth with chisel-like crowns ; then comes the
single large tusk, behind which are the cheek-teeth, of
which the number is very frequently seven, although

FIG. 64.— The teeth of the left side of the upper jaw of the Indian Civet.

there are only six in the figured jaw. In those
Mammals which live on an animal diet, the three or
four foremost of the cheek-teeth (Fig. 64) retain a
more or less close approximation to the original com-
i pressed conical form, only the hinder ones acquiring
broad and flattened crowns adapted for masticating
or grinding. But in some of the herbivorous species,
on the contrary, as the Horse, all the teeth behind
the tusk may acquire these greatly developed and
flattened crowns.

In the division of the teeth into incisors, tusks, and

204 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

cheek-teeth, the peculiar extinct Keptile from South
Africa, of which the skull is shown in Fig. 62, agrees
with Mammals, although it differs in that each cheek-
tooth is fixed in the jaw by a simple undivided root,
whereas, in all mammals (with the exception men-
tioned), these teeth are implanted by two or more
roots ; the number of these roots being greatest in
the hindmost teeth, as all those who have had the
misfortune to part with a "back-grinder under the hands
of the dentist know only too well.

Again, there is another very important feature by
which the teeth of the great majority of Mammals are
distinguished from those of Reptiles. As we have
already mentioned, the old teeth of most Reptiles are
being continuously and irregularly replaced by new
ones throughout the life of their owners; but in
Mammals there is only one such replacement during
the whole of life, and that only of a certain definite
number of the teeth. Thus in Chapter XII. it has
been shown that among the Pouched Mammals there is
only one tooth on either side of each jaw which is so
changed, that tootli corresponding to the eighth tooth
from the front in Fig. 64 In the case, however, of a
Mammal with a dentition like that represented in the
figure last mentioned, all the teeth in advance of the
last two, with the exception of the small one immedi-
ately behind the tusk, have been preceded by baby-,
or milk-teeth, that is to say, with teeth corresponding
to such of those of the human child as are gradually
replaced by larger successors with advancing age. The

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 205

last teeth of a Mammal, — two in Dogs and Civets (Fig.
64), but three in man, — have, however, no such milk-
predecessors, and are hence called true grinders; the
teeth between these latter and the tusk, which are
only two in number in Man, against four in the Civet,
Dog, and Pig, being termed the false grinders.

This single definite replacement of a certain number
of teeth — it may be of only one, or it may be of seven
or eight on either side of each jaw — is, therefore, a
peculiar feature of Mammals, and indicates the highest
and most nearly perfect phase of the development of
the tooth-series.

Having thus acquired a general idea of some of the
more important characteristics distinguishing the teeth
of Mammals as a whole, we are in a position to enter
into the consideration of their structure in any par-
ticular group. Perhaps one of the most interesting of

t~MW

FIG. 65.— The last three left upper cheek-teeth of an extinct Pi£.

all groups in regard to the gradual development of a
highly complex structure in the cheek-teeth of the
modern forms, is that of the Hoofed or Ungulate
Mammals; or that extensive order which includes
the three great groups of Pigs, Deer, Antelopes, and

2o6 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Cattle ; Tapirs, Ehinoceroses, and Horses ; and, lastly,
Elephants. The animals of the first group are all
related to one another by the structure of the feet, in
which the two middle toes are symmetrical to one
another; and we can trace in this, as well as in the
two following groups, a gradual increase in the com-
plexity of the teeth, as we proceed from what naturalists
term the generalised to the specialised types; the
latter being, it need hardly be mentioned, mainly
characteristic of the present day and the latest geo-
logical period, while the former are mostly of earlier
origin.

The simplest form of cheek-tooth in this group is
found among certain extinct animals closely related to
the modern Pigs, three of these teeth being repre-
sented in Fig. 65. It will there be seen that the crown
of each of these teeth carries four comparatively low
and simple cone-like prominences ; the number of
these cones being one added to the primitive type
of triangular tooth mentioned above. These cones, it
will be observed, are separated from one another by a
+ -shaped shallow depression or valley ; and when their
summits become somewhat worn down by use (as in
the tooth on the left of the figure), it will be seen that
nearly circular islands of dentine are exposed. The
figure also shows that the last tooth is rather larger
than either of the others; this being still more
markedly the case with the corresponding tooth in
the lower jaw. In the modern Pigs this last lower
tooth (Fig. 66) becomes still larger ; while, as may be

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS.

207

FIG. 06.— The last right lower cheek-tooth
of a Piy.

seen from the figure, the cones of all the teeth have
now lost the sijaaple form of the earlier species, and
have been thrown into " puckers," so that when worn
the exposed islands of dentine have an irregular shape
with " crinkled " edges.
From the ' hillock - like
formation of these teeth
in the Pig family, the
term bunodont (Gr. lou-
nos, a hillock) has been
proposed for this type of
dental structure. In cor-
relation with this comparatively simple type of cheek-
teeth, it should be mentioned that the Pigs have incisor
teeth and large tusks in both jaws : while their feet
agree with those of ordi-
nary mammals in having
the middle metacarpal ancl
metatarsal bones (or the
bones immediately below the
wrist and ankle) separate
from one another.

From the type of tooth
represented in Fig. 65, other
fossil forms exhibit a com-
plete transition to the im-
perfect tooth represented in
Fig. 67. In addition to the
immaterial point of its larger dimensions, it will be
noticed that the latter has five cones, a minute cone

FIG. 67.— An imperfect left upper
cheek-tooth of an extinct Seleno-
dont pip-like animal.

2o8 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

visible in Fig. 65 having now developed into one of
nearly equal importance with the others. The most
remarkable feature connected with this type of tooth
is, however, that all the cones have been compressed
from side to side, and have acquired a crescent-like
curvature, so that the worn surfaces of dentine are
crescent-shaped, and the cones themselves should more
properly be described as crescents. Hence this type
of tooth has been described as the selenodont (Gr. selenc,
the moon, and hence a crescent) modification. It will
be observed that in this form of tooth the crescents
are still low, and the valleys separating them quite
shallow ; and it is further evident that the compli-
cated grinding surface thus produced is one better
adapted for the thorough mastication of substances
like grass than that of the teeth shown in Fig. 65, thus
enabling its owner to obtain a better sustenance out
of such herbage. With. Fig. 68 we
come to the tooth of another extinct
animal of this group, in which the
fifth crescent has been lost, while
the four main crescents have be-
come decidedly more deeply curved
FIG. 68.-A right upper and somewhat higher, although the
cheek-tooth of an extinct bottom of the intervening valleys

animal intermediate be-
tween the Pigs and the [s s^{\\ more or less distinctly

Deer.

visible. The worn surfaces of den-
tine, it will be noted, are quite V-shaped.

Thus far we have succeeded in tracing the gradual
modification of the bunodont tooth of a true

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS.

209

into one with a selenodont form, although of a low-
crowned type; and we may infer from this that the
owners of the latter type of teeth tended to depart
more and more completely from the mixed diet of the
Pigs towards the purely herbaceous diet of the Deer
and Cattle. So far, however, as we are acquainted
with these intermediate animals, their general type
of organisation appears to have been very like that
of the Pigs. We have now, however, to consider the
teeth of the modern Deer and Cattle, which we shall
find to be of a still more complex type. Fig. 69 shows
a somewhat worn cheek-tooth of one of the smaller
Deer, which will be seen to be but a
step in advance of the tooth represented
in Fig. 68, the outer crescents having
now become still more compressed and
flattened, and both these and the inner
ones having acquired a considerably
greater elevation, so that the bottom of
the valleys between the crescents is no
longer visible. In some other species of
Deer, as well as in many of the Antelopes,
the crescents of the teeth become very

•

much taller (Fig. 70), so that the inter-

veiling valleys form deep pockets, with

narrow entrances, and the whole type of tooth is so

utterly unlike that of the Pigs that, when the inter-

mediate extinct types were unknown, it is small wonder

that the older naturalists failed to recognise the intimate

connection that really exists between the Pigs and the

ttw

"f aDf®r- v.iewed

from the grinding

surface and from

the outer side.

2io ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

Kumiuants, as the Deer, Cattle, &c., are often con-
veniently termed. Finally, in the Oxen the crowns of
the teeth become still taller, with the deep valleys be-
tween the crescents more or less completely filled up
with cement. Side by side with
this remarkable modification of the
cheek-teeth, the Euminants have
undergone other equally notable
structural changes, some of which
we may briefly mention. Thus, in
the first place, all the true Eumi-
nants have totally lost their upper
incisive teeth ; the lower ones, as we
FIG. 70.— A left upper may see in the Cow and the Sheep,

cheek-tooth of an Ante- , . . . , . ,

lope. This tooth is less biting against a hard pad in the

worn than the one in the • rr\i • A.-I

preceding figure. upper jaw. Then, again, the two

separate metacarpal and me ta tar-
sal bones found respectively in the fore and hind limbs
of the Pig, have fused together to form the well-
known "cannon-bone," so characteristic of the limbs
of the Euminants. While, finally, in place of the
simple stomach of the Pig, we find all the true
Euminants furnished with that peculiarly complex
type of divided stomach necessary for the function
of " chewing the cud " or ruminating.

All these modifications of structure are admirably
suited to the mode of life of the Euminants. Thus
the height of the crowns of the cheek-teeth, and the
complex grinding surfaces which they present, are
necessary to withstand the excessive wear to which

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 211

they are subjected in the process of chewing the cud,
and thus reducing the fibres of grass to a fine pulp.
Probably also this increased height of teeth enables
their owners to enjoy a longer duration of life than
was possible to the Tertiary ancestors of the Euminants.
Then, again, the consolidation of the bones of the
lower part of the leg into a single shaft is far better
adapted to withstand the strain of supporting long-
limbed and large-bodied animals when galloping at
a rapid pace than would be a limb with the separate
bones of the Pig. Indeed, the most specialised
Ruminants, such as the beautiful Antelopes of South
Africa, seem to be so admirably adapted to their mode
of life that it is impossible to imagine how this type
of animal life could be improved upon.

When we turn to the second great group of
Ungulates, or that which contains the Tapirs, Pthino-
ceroses, and Horses, we shall find that a precisely
analogous series of modifications has taken place in
the structure of the teeth and feet, although it has
followed a different plan. All these animals are
characterised by the middle toe in each foot being
symmetrical in itself; and whereas all the ancient
forms, as well as the living Tapirs and Rhinoceroses,
have at least three toes to each foot, the highly
specialised Horse, as we all know, has but a single
very large toe to each limb. This reduction of the
number of toes and the accompanying lengthening of
the whole limb, has resulted in a speed which is out
of all comparison with that which can be attained by

212

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the clumsy Khinoceroses and Tapirs, and can only be
equalled by that of the Antelopes and Deer.

The cheek-teeth of the Khinoceroses and Tapirs are
formed on a somewhat different plan from that obtain-
ing in the previous group, as may be seen by comparing

FIG. 71.— A left upper cheek-tooth of a Rhinoceros-.

the figure of a Rhinoceros tooth, given in Fig. 71, with
the earlier figures. This plan of structure consists,
indeed, of an outer wall, with two oblique ridges or
crests running towards the inner side of the crown,
where they terminate in somewhat expanded pillars.
When somewhat worn, the surfaces of dentine on such

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 213

a tooth present the very characteristic pattern shown
in the figure, which at once enables us to say to which
group its owner belonged. This peculiar type of tooth
may be readily derived from the four-columned tooth
of the primitive Pigs (although it is not for one
moment to be supposed that Rhinoceroses, &c., are
descended from Pigs) by the union of the two outer
cones to form the outer ridge, and also by the junction
of each of the outer cones with the corresponding
inner cone to make the transverse crests. The crown
of the Rhinoceros's tooth, as seen in the figure, is com-
paratively low, and the valleys between the ridges and
crests are shallow, and not filled with cement. The
teeth of Tapirs are of the same general type, and so
also are those of all the extinct Tertiary Ungulates of
this group, from some of which, as Professors Huxley
and Marsh have so clearly shown, the modern horse
appears to have been evolved.

the cheek-teeth of Horses (Fig. 72) have, however,
been so strangely modified from this generalised type
by the great increase in the height of their crowns, and
the complexity of their grinding-surfaces, produced by
foldings of the enamel of the longitudinal and trans-
verse ridges, that it is at first sight somewhat difficult
to see how the different portions of such a tooth corre-
spond with those of the tooth of a Rhinoceros. By the
aid, however, of Fig. 72, which represents a cheek-tooth
of an extinct horse-like animal, we may endeavour to
trace this correspondence, although the difficulty of
this is unfortunately somewhat increased by Figs. 72

214

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and 73 being taken from teeth of opposite sides of the
jaw. It is, however, quite evident that the parts
marked pa and me in Fig. 72 correspond with the outer
wall of Fig. 71 ; while pr and hy in the former repre-
sent the inner termination of the transverse crests in
the latter. Further comparison of the two figures will
convince us that the parts marked pi and pp in Fig. 72
are the equivalents of the middle portions of the two
transverse crests in Fig. 71. A comparison of Figs.

FIG. 72. — A left upper cheek-
tooth of the extinct horse-like
Anchithere. (After 0*ln>rii.)

L''KJ. 7:).— Grinding surface of a
right upper cheek-tooth of a
Horse, p, corresponds with
vr, and //// with Jin in Fig. 72.

72, 73 will show their unity of plan, the central islands
in the latter representing the hollows or valleys in
Fig. 72, which have now become completely enclosed
by the enamel, and are filled by the white cement.

The height of the crown of one of the grinders of a
Horse is, as most of us know, more than three inches
and the admirable grinding surfaces formed by alterna-
tions of three substances of different hardness, arranged
in the complex manner seen in Fig. 73, is self-apparent.

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 215

Horses fed on the hard substances given to them in Euro-
pean stables will often live to at least five-and-twenty
years of age, and it is perfectly evident that this com-
paratively long duration of life could never be attained
if these animals were not furnished with the long-
crowned teeth we have just described, since the short-
crowned and simple teeth of a Tapir would be entirely
worn away by such a diet at a very much earlier period.

We see, then, in the Horse an animal which, in the
structure of its teeth and limbs, has attained, so to
speak, to the same platform of specialisation as that
on which the Deer and Antelopes stand, but has
reached it by a totally different ladder. It is, indeed,
as if two engineers had, after many intermediate steps,
at last perfected two machines, each equally well fitted
for the same purpose, and each resembling one another
to a certain extent in their general plan of construc-
tion, but yet differing very decidedly in details. And
it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the reader
what a powerful argument this gradual evolution of the
teeth in two allied stocks of animals, towards the same
relative perfection of structure, affords to the doctrine
of a general evolution of the whole animal kingdom.

Our last illustration of the gradual increase in the
complexity of the structure of the grinding teeth in
the Ungulate order, as we proceed from the old extinct
generalised types (and some allied ones which still
survive) to the specialised forms characteristic of the
world of to-day, will be derived from the peculiar
group of Elephants. At the present time, it need

216 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

scarcely be mentioned, there are but two species of
Elephant, both nearly related, but one being confined
to the African Continent and the other inhabiting
India and some of the adjacent regions. In the later
Tertiary period of the earth's history Elephants were,
however, much more numerous, and were then spread
over the greater part of the surface of the globe, having
been obtained from Europe and Asia, as far north as
Siberia, North and South America, and North Africa.
Many of these extinct Elephants, and, indeed, all of
the earlier ones, differed very remarkably from the
living species in the much simpler structure of their
teeth ; these species being known as Mastodons, a term
which has now become almost a popular one.

In common with true Elephants, Mastodons differ
from other Mammals, in that, instead of having all
their cheek-teeth in use at the same time, the hinder
ones gradually come up in an arc of a circle behind
the tooth in use at any one particular period, which
is gradually worn away and shed. Further, the teeth
gradually increase in complexity from before back-
wards, the most anterior ones in some cases not having
more than two ridges (Fig. 74), while the hinder ones
are much more complex (Fig. 76). It results from this
peculiar mode of succession that there are never more
than portions of two, or at most of three, teeth on
either side of each jaw in use at any one time. Fig.
74 shows that the simple cheek-teeth of a Mastodon
are really constructed on the same general plan as
those of a Pig (Fig. 65), the outer cones having more

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 217

or less completely united with the inner ones to form
two transverse ridges. In some of the earlier teeth of
the Mastodon there may be only two such ridges (Fig.
74), but in the later ones the number of ridges is gene-
rally either three or four
(Fig. 75), with additional im-
perfect ridges at the two ex-
tremities. In such a tooth
(Fig. 75), it will be seen that
the transverse ridges are low
and roof-like; the valleys
separating one ridge from
another being broad and com-
paratively Shallow, Without FIG- '4--An anterior cheek-tooth of

a Mastodon.

any of the substance known

as cement at their bases. When the enamel on the
summit of such ridges is worn through by the abrasion
of the teeth of the upper jaw against those of the lower,
oval or trefoil-shaped islands of the underlying dentine
are revealed, as in Fig. 76. The latter figure exhibits the
last tooth of a Mastodon in which there are five com-
plete transverse ridges, this being the most complex
form of tooth found in any of the Mastodons.

In certain Tertiary rocks in India lying along the
southern flanks of the great range of the Himalaya
there are, however, found enormous numbers of teeth of
peculiar species of Elephants, which, while resembling
in many respects those of the Mastodons, have a con-
siderably greater number of ridges. Moreover, the
ridges themselves are relatively narrower and taller,

218 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

so that the depth of the intervening valleys is like-
wise increased. These valleys also contain a certain
amount of the third constituent of mammalian teeth —
the cement — so that their bases are partially filled up
by it.

From the teeth of these Intermediate Elephants, as
they may be conveniently called, the step is but very

FIG. 75. — A left upper cheek-tooth of a Mastodon in an unworn condition.

short to those of the modern or true Elephants. In
these, as shown in Fig. 77, the difference from the
teeth of the Mastodon is so great that without the
intermediate forms it is difficult to trace the corre-
spondence between their respective elements. In the
true Elephants, indeed, the transverse ridges of the
teeth have not only been greatly increased in number,
so that there may be as many as twenty-five in the

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 219

last tooth of certain species, but they have also been
so much increased in height and narrowed in width
that they assume the form of thin plates, which may
be six or eight inches in height, and the sides of which
are almost parallel. The valleys between these plates,
as they may now be called, have likewise become thin
and deep slits, which are completely filled to their
very summits with the cement. Thus, comparing Fig.
77 with Fig. 76, it will be apparent that each of the
elongated discs seen in the former, which consists of a
layer of enamel surrounding a strip of dentine, corre-
sponds to the transverse ridges of the latter ; while the
spaces between the discs in Fig. 77, which are composed
of cement, represent the open valleys of Fig. 76.

The surface of such an Elephant's tooth forms,
indeed, a millstone most perfectly adapted for grinding
vegetable substances, consisting as it does of parallel
ridges composed of elements of different degrees of
hardness. Such a tooth, with its height of nearly
eight inches in some species, takes many years to wear
away ; and with a succession of six of these teeth
gradually increasing in size and complexity from the
first to the last, we are well able to understand how
the Indian Elephant can live fully to the age of a
century. It is also equally evident that the more
simple and lower- crowned teeth of the Tertiary Mas-
todons must have been worn away at a far more rapid
rate ; so that we are justified in saying that these
animals could not have attained anything like the
length of life enjoyed by their modern descendants.

220

ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

There is a considerable amount of variation in the
structure of the grinding-teeth of the true Elephants,
although all of them resemble to a greater or less
degree the specimen represented in Fig. 77. In the
African elephant, however, the discs of dentine, sur-
rounded by their border of enamel, are much wider in
the middle than in ^the figured ttooth, andjthus assume
a lozenge shape. In this respect, therefore, the African

G. 7U.— The last left upper tooth of a Mastodon, with the cm
first ridges perforated by wear.

1 of the twi

elephant is a more generalised or old-fashioned kind of
animal than his Indian cousin ; and we may observe,
in passing, that the African continent is now remark-
able for containing a number of old types, such as
Hippopotamuses, Giraffes, and Aard-Varks, which have
totally disappeared from other regions, although, as we
know from their fossil remains, they were once widely
spread over the globe. Thus, Hippopotamuses (or shall
we say Hippopotami ?) once ranged over the greater

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 221

part of Europe, extending as far north as the southern
parts of our own islands, and were also common in
Northern India; the same being true of the Giraffes,
with the exception that their remains have not hitherto
been found in Britain.

The most complex type of teeth is, however, attained
by the Indian Elephant, and the closely allied Mam-
moth, which in the latest geological epoch ranged, over
the greater part of Europe, and whose frozen carcases
are from time to time washed out from the so-called
"tundras," or superficial deposits of Siberia, to be
exposed to human view after having been buried for
countless centuries. In these two species the plates of
the teeth are narrower and more numerous than in the
tooth represented in Fig. 77, so that the even surfaces
of dentine form still narrower stripes. At first sight it
seems difficult to believe that the Elephant now in-
habiting the burning plains of India should be closely
allied to a species which formerly roamed over the icy
regions of Siberia, but there are two considerations
which show how little value such objections have.
Thus, in the first place, there is considerable evidence
that the climate of Siberia, although doubtless always
cold in winter, was formerly less severe than at present.
We have, moreover, evidence in the case of the Tiger
how an animal can support the extremes of heat and
cold with no alteration of its structure. Many people,
indeed, if they were asked to mention the habitat of
the Tiger, would say India, little knowing that this
creature ranges in China and thence to Siberia into

222 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

extremely high latitudes. The skins of these northern
tigers are far handsomer than those from India, the
hair being long and comparatively shaggy, so as to
protect its owner from the bitter cold. The case of
the Indian Elephant and the Mammoth is a precisely
similar one, the existing Indian species having, as we
all know, an almost naked skin, while the Siberian
Mammoth was clothed with long shaggy hair, as we
learn not only from its frozen remains, but also from
the rude pictures of the living animal drawn many
centuries ago on fragments of its own tusks by the old
pre- historic hunters of the Dordogne.

In mentioning tusks, we should not forget that the
modern Elephants differ from many of the old Masto-
dons in having tusks only in the upper jaw, while in
the latter they were also present in the lower. We
have, therefore, here also another instance of the
greater specialisation of the recent types.

In showing that with the advance of time the
Elephants have gradually developed an extremely
complex type of grinding-tooth from a comparatively
simple one, we find that they occupy a parallel posi-
tion with that held by the other two great groups of
the Ungulate order.

There is, however, one very important point whereby
the Elephants differ from these two groups, namely,
that they have not undergone any contemporaneous
modification in the structure of the foot. The feet
of an Elephant are, indeed, of an exceedingly primitive
type, having five complete toes, and being more like

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS.

223

those of the very earliest Ungulates of the Ter-
tiary period than
is the case with
any other living
member of the
order, except the
little Hyrax or
so-called Coney
of the Bible. The
explanation of
this absence of
modification in
the structure of
the foot of the
recent as com-
pared with the
extinct Ele-
phants is, how-
ever, not far to
seek. By reason
of their huge
bulk these ani-
mals have had
no need to fear
the attacks of
other creatures,
so that there was
no necessity for
the development of a limb suitable for extreme speed,
while the huge bulk of their bodies of itself also

224 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

required the retention of a type of limb constructed on
principles of strength rather than elegance. Hence
there has been no inducement for any alteration in
the structure of the feet of these ponderous brutes as
time rolled on ; and so that while it requires the aid
of the man of science to trace the relationship existing
between the tooth of the ancient Mastodon and that
of the modern Indian Elephant, the veriest tyro would
not hesitate to declare that the skeletons of the same
two creatures indicated the closest relationship.

To sum up the results of this brief survey of some
of the more striking features connected with the
cheek-teeth of the Ungulate Mammals, we may say
that all the .Ungulates of the lower Tertiary deposits
had low-crowned teeth of comparatively simple struc-
ture ; and that those of all the three groups into which
the order is divided can be derived from a type of
tooth not far removed from that possessed by the
ancestors of the Pigs, the latter type being itself a
modification from the still more primitive triangular
type. In all the three groups of Ungulates, the crowns
of the teeth have tended to increase in height and in
complexity of structure with the advance of time ;
those Ungulates with the tallest crowned teeth being
characteristic of the most recent period of the earth's
history. Finally, that while in the groups containing
the Ruminants and the Horses the structure of the
feet has been modified pari passu with that of the
teeth, to produce limbs capable of carrying their
owners at an extremely rapid rate, in the Elephants,

TEETH AND THEIR VARIATIONS. 225

where there is no need for swiftness of flight, the feet
have not undergone this adaptive modification, so that
the whole structural alterations have been confined
to the teeth.

In conclusion, we venture to think that sufficient
has been said to show what an extremely interesting
study is that of teeth. These organs are, indeed,
interesting not only from their curious and often
beautiful forms, but also, as we have striven to show
in the foregoing paragraphs, as affording a concise
and, so to speak, epitomised summary of- the degree
of evolution which any particular group of animals
has undergone in the course of time.

CHAPTER XV.

HORNS AND ANTLERS.

IN the chapter on " Mail- Clad Animals/' we treated of
what may be termed the armature of animals for passive
resistance ; while in the present one it is our intention
to consider certain forms of armature adapted either
for active resistance or for actual attack. Many forms
of this type of armature, such as the tusks and claws
of the Cat-tribe and other Carnivores, the pincers of
the Lobster, the sting of the Bee and the Scorpion, and
the poison-fang of the Adder, will at once present
themselves to the mind of the reader; but on this
occasion we propose to confine our attention to those
types of armature commonly known as horns and
antlers, which are now met with only among the
Hoofed or Ungulate Mammals; although, as we shall
mention in the sequel, the former were also developed
in past epochs among a lower group of animals.

It will, first of all, be essential to thoroughly under-
stand what we mean by the terms " horn " and " antler,"
since, although both are purely English words, there is
often great confusion in their application ; the term
horn being often applied to an antler, although the
converse misnomer is never met with.

226

HORNS AND ANTLERS. 227

Commencing with antlers, it is scarcely necessary to
say that the organs so named are the branching bony
protuberances borne upon the heads of the males of
most species of Deer during a certain part of the year.
The nature of these appendages is well shown in the
woodcut on page 229, drawn by Mr. H. A. Cole, from
the head of a Fallow-Deer shot in Epping Forest in
1884. In the figured species the extremities of the
antlers are flattened out, and are accordingly termed
palmated ; but in the Eed Deer, and most other species,
they are more or less nearly cylindrical throughout
the greater part of their length.

The most characteristic feature of the outer surface
of an antler is its ruggedness, which reminds us some-
what of the bark of a tree, and is taken advantage of
in the manufacture of so-called "buckshorn" knife-
handles, &c. Antlers are, indeed, almost quite peculiar
in that they represent, when fully formed, an entirely
dead structure borne by a living animal as part and
parcel of itself, and their mode of growth is very in-
teresting. Thus, some time after a stag has shed its
antlers, there appear on the summit of the skull two
small velvety knobs, very tender and sensitive, and
supplied by an unusual number of blood-vessels.
These knobs, which are deposits of bony matter, very
rapidly increase in size, and soon begin to branch into
a number of so-called tines, and finally assume the
form .of the complete antlers. It will thus be evident
that even when fully grown the new antlers are still en-
tirely covered with the soft skin known as the " velvet,"

228 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

beneath which the blood-vessels carry the blood to all
their parts. With the final completion of their growth,
and the cessation of the deposition of bony matter from
the blood over the greater part of the antler, there is
formed, however, at the very base, just above the point
where the antler joins the protuberance on the fore-
head from which it takes its rise, a rough prominent
ring of bone. This protuberant ring, which is
commonly known as the " burr," and is often used to
form the end of whip-handles, serves to constrict the
blood-vessels at this point, so that henceforth no blood
is carried over the antlers. In consequence of this de-
privation of blood, the " velvet " rapidly dries up, and
either peels off, or is rubbed off by the animal against
the stems and branches of trees. The antlers are then
complete, and their owner steps proudly forward from
the sequestered glades in which he has lain concealed
during the period of their growth as the " monarch of
the glen."

This, then, is the mode of development of antlers ;
and after they have served their purpose as weapons of
offence during the fierce encounters which take place
between the males during the breeding season, the
living bone beneath the skin at the base of the burr is
absorbed, and the antler, or dead bone, is shed, to be
again renewed in the same manner as before.

Another point in connection with antlers is, however,
noteworthy — namely, that they gradually increase in
complexity as the age of the animal advances. Thus,
the head of the Fallow-Deer represented in Figure 78

HORNS AND ANTLERS.

229

evidently belongs to a fully-grown buck, for a young
animal would have had much simpler antlers. Indeed,
in the fawns of the first year the antlers of the Bed-

FIG. 78.— Head of Fallow-Deer, to show.branching and palmated antlers.

Deer consist only of a single prong, with a short front
tine; and year by year as they are renewed they
acquire a greater and still greater number of tines

:23o ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

and branches, till they finally attain the complete
stage, when their owner is termed a " royal hart."
And a similar gradual increase in complexity takes
place in the case of the Fallow-Deer and most other
species. A few forms, however, like the Roe, always
retain a comparatively simple type of antler, and thus
recall the Deer of the middle Tertiary period, when
none of the species had attained the complex antlers
found in the larger living species. When we go still
farther back in past time, and come to the lower part
of the Tertiary epoch, we find, indeed, that the Deer
had no antlers at all ; and it is thus curious to observe,
as in so many other analogous instances, that the gra-
dual annual increase in the complexity of the antlers
of an individual of one of the existing species, is but
an epitome of the gradual evolution during geologic
times of the complex antlers of the living forms from
the simple ones of their early ancestors.

Great variation occurs in the form assumed by the
antlers of the different species of deer. Thus, as we
have said, in the Roe the antlers are simply forked,
while in the fully-developed Red Deer they may have
as many as sixteen points. In the Fallow-Deer the
extremities only (Fig. 78) are distinctly palmated ; but
in the Elk, or Moose, the palmation embraces nearly
the whole of the antler, and attains an enormous
development. Of the species with cylindrical antlers
those which attain the greatest development in this
respect are the Canadian Wapiti, the great stag of the
Thian Shan range, and some allied species from Tibet

HORNS AND ANTLERS. 231

and Persia. But the antlers which are found fossil in
the peat and cavern-deposits of this country indicate
that the predecessors of our own Eed Deer attained
equally gigantic dimensions. The extinct Gigantic Irish
Deer had, however, the finest antlers of any member
of the family, their expanse from tip to tip sometimes
exceeding 11 feet. Alone among the deer tribe, the
Eeindeer of the northern regions of Europe and America
has antlers in the female as well as in the male ; thus
indicating that in this instance the function of these ap-
pendages is connected with something else besides the
combats of the males during the breeding season.

Having said thus much in regard to antlers, our
next theme is that of horns, which we shall find to
be of a totally different nature. The woodcut (Fig. 79)
shows the upper part of the skull and horns of an
Antelope. These horns are supported on bony pro-
minences arising from the forehead, without any
"burr" at their base, and forming, in fact, part and
parcel of the skull itself. During life they are per-
meated by blood-vessels which traverse the whole of
their interior, and they are coated by the hollow sheaths,
to which the term horn is properly restricted. In
structure these horny sheaths are merely a specially
modified kind of skin, somewhat analogous to our own
nails; and they are connected with the underlying
horn-core by soft tissue and blood-vessels. Thus the
horns of an Ox, Sheep, Goat, or Antelope, are essentially
living structures — as we may see for ourselves in the
case of an Ox or Cow which has had the misfortune to

232 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

wrench off its horn from the bony horn-core ; and are
thereby totally different from the dead antlers of
the Deer. Moreover, with one remarkable exception,
of which more anon, horns are never branched, and are
never shed from their bony cores. In many instances,
as in the Oxen, they are also common to the male and
female; although those of the former are the larger.
As in the case of Deer, we find, however, that the
earliest Oxen and Antelopes were devoid of horns, and
that these appendages show a gradual increase in size
as we ascend in the Tertiary period to the present day.
The one exception among the hollow-horned Rumi-
nants (as the animals with true horns are often called),
in which the horns are branched and are annually shed
from their cores, is the Prong-buck of North America.
In this elegant Antelope the horns have a single
branch, and curve backwards in a hook-like manner.
Another type of cranial appendage is exhibited by the
well-known Giraffe, of Africa, which has a pair of
short bony protuberances on the forehead differing
from those of any of the preceding forms. These pro-
tuberances, which are some three inches in length, are
cones of bone resting upon the forehead, from which
in the young state they are entirely separate, although
in old animals they become firmy united by bone with
the skull. They are completely covered with skin,
and seem to be of no possible use to their owner.
They appear to correspond with the bony pedicles sup-
porting the antlers of the deer, and may, perhaps, be
regarded as remnants of larger appendages found in cer-

HORNS AND ANTLERS.

233

tain extinct animals, which appear to have been in some
respects intermediate between antlers and true horns.

The creature in which this intermediate type of
cranial appendages occurs is the huge extinct Siva-
there, of the Upper Tertiary deposits of Northern
India, which is the largest known representative of the

FIG. 79.— Upper part of skull of Hartebeest, to show horns. (From Gilnther.)

Kuminants, or cud-chewing Mammals. This animal
was provided with huge wide-spreading antlers (al-
though it is here difficult to say whether we should
use the term antler or horn), somewhat like those of
the Elk, but apparently permanently attached to the
skull, since they show no sign of a " burr " at the base.
They were, in all probability, always covered either

234 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

with skin or with very thin horn, and thus seem to
indicate that the difference between an antler and a
horn is not so great as appears to be the case when
our studies are confined to living animals.

The last form of horn we have to mention among
existing animals is that found in the Rhinoceroses.
And here we have to observe that whereas the antlers
of the Deer and the horns of the Oxen are placed in
pairs on either side of the skull, in the Rhinoceroses
the horns or horn (for there may be either two or one)
are placed in the middle line — one in front of the other
when two are present. In structure these horns would
be comparable to the horn of an Ox, if the latter had
no bony core, and were filled up internally with the
same horny material as that which forms its outer
surface. These horns have no solid attachment to
the underlying bone of the skull, and are thus only
excessive developments of skin-structure, more ana-
logous in structure to warts than to anything else
with which we can compare them.

The extinct animals from the Tertiary deposits of the
United States known as Titanotheres, which were some-
what akin to Rhinoceroses, are distinguished by having
a transverse pair of bony horn-cores above the nose,
which during life were doubtless sheathed in horn.
Again, the Uintatheres (so named from the Uinta Moun-
tains), of the same region, form another strange extinct
type of huge Ungulates, having as many as three pairs
of bony horn-cores ; and thus being the most extraordi-
nary creatures of this group of animals at present known

HORNS AND ANTLERS. 235

to us. In addition to the horns the skulls of the males
were armed with long and formidable tusks in the upper
jaw, somewhat like those found in certain extinct tigers.

The above are the three great types of offensive
armature with which the skulls of existing Mammals
are provided, and they are all of them, as already
observed, found in the order of Hoofed Mammals, and
nowhere else, at the present day. If, however, we go
back to the long-distant Mesozoic epoch, or period at
which our chalk was deposited at the bottom of the
sea, we find that certain herbivorous species of the
gigantic reptiles known as Dinosaurs, which are de-
scribed in Chapter VIII., were provided with paired
bony horn-cores on their skulls (Fig. 41), so exactly
resembling those of our own Oxen that some of them
when found detached were actually described as belong-
ing to an extinct Bison. In the later Tertiary beds of
Australia we also find a huge tortoise with somewhat
similar horn-cores on its forehead ; and since the horn-
cores, both in this and the preceding instance, so closely
simulate in structure those of the Oxen, we may fairly
infer that they were similarly sheathed with true horns
during life.

Thus we learn that in long past epochs not only was
the place of the larger herbivorous Mammals of the
present day taken by various forms of giant herbi-
vorous reptiles, but that those reptiles were actually
armed with weapons precisely similar to those of the
Mammals of the present day. So true is it that there
is " nothing new under the sun."

CHAPTEK XVI.
RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES.

IF we turn to the word ''rudiment" in any English
dictionary we shall find it defined somewhat after the
following manner, viz. " a first principle or element ;
the original of any thing in its first form ; that which
is first to he learned." While we shall also find the
words " rudimental " or " rudimentary " explained as
" initial ; pertaining to rudiments."

. Now we may presume that it was in this sense of
the word "rudiment" that the terms "rudimentary
structures" or "rudimentary organs" were originally
applied to certain animal structures or organs, which,
while appearing to be of no use to their owners, seemed
to foreshadow structures fully developed and of func-
tional importance in other creatures. At the time
when these terms were first applied (it need scarcely
be observed) the doctrine of special creations was
almost universally accepted ; but even then it is ex-
tremely difficult to see how there could be any philo-
sophical defence for this use of the terms, since, if the
structures so named were really primitive rudiments,
their existence almost ipso facto implied some sort of

genetic connection between the creatures in which

236

RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES. 237

they are found and those in which the kindred struc-
tures were functional.

With the advent of the doctrine of evolution, and the
more careful investigations into the structure of animals
which had by that time taken place, a total change of
view as to the real nature and import of these so-called
rudimental structures at once ensued. Thus it was
soon found (not by conjecture, but from actual circum-
stantial evidence) that, in place of being the beginnings
of structures which eventually became functional, these
rudiments were really the remnants of structures which
had once been functional but had now become useless.
This change of view necessitates, therefore, that the
term " rudiment " in zoology must, at least very gene-
rally, be used in precisely the opposite sense to the
one in which it is employed in ordinary parlance.

In order to make this application of the term quite
clear, we may mention one or two illustrations taken
from our own dress. For instance, at a time when
people wore elastic-sided boots more frequently than
they do now, the fronts of the boots were often orna^
mented with a set of " dummy " laces and lace-holes.
These " dummy " laces being quite useless were, there-
fore, essentially rudimentary structures, which had
been, so to speak, retained as an ornament. Again,
the small black patch at the top of a judge's wig is
the last remnant of his black cap or hat, and is, there-*
fore, a useless rudimentary structure. Another case
is afforded by the little pocket-like fold at the end of a
university hood, which really represents the peak of

238 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

the monk's cowl. Many other similar cases will occur
to the reader, but the above are sufficient for our
present purpose.

Some of the best instances in nature of rudimentary
structures are to be found in the feet of the Hoofed or
Ungulate Mammals, or that great group which includes
Horses, Ehinoceroses, Cattle, Deer, Elephants, &c. In
the Elephant and many of the earlier extinct members
of this group each foot (as we have already mentioned
in the article on " Teeth and their Variations ") was
furnished with five complete toes, each of which was
supported by a separate bone, connecting it with the
wrist in the fore limb, and, with the ankle in the hind
limb. These five connecting bones in the fore limb (to
which we will confine our attention) correspond with
those forming the upper part of our own hand, and,
as following the wrist or carpus, are termed the meta-
carpal bones, or metacarpus. With the exception of the
elephant the number of the fingers and metacarpals in
all living Ungulates is, however, always less than five,
the first finger, or that corresponding with our thumb,
having invariably disappeared. In the Even-Toed
Ungulates, such as Pigs, Deer, and Cattle, where the
middle pair of fingers or hoofs (corresponding to our
third and fourth fingers, the thumb being reckoned as
the first) are always symmetrical to one another, we
find as we advance to the more specialised species a
gradual diminution in the relative size of the second
and fifth metacarpals, as compared with the middle
pair. Thus in certain extinct Pig-like Animals the

RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES.

239

whole of the four metacarpals were large, and com-
pletely separate from each other; while all the four
toes were fully applied to the ground in walking. In
the Pigs, however, the outer (2nd and 5th) metacarpals
have become much reduced in size ; while their small
toes, as we may see any day for ourselves, only touch
the ground when the animal is walking on soft or
marshy ground. A still further dimi-
nution in the size of these lateral meta-
carpals is presented by the foot of the
extinct creature shown in Fig. 80,
where we find that they are only repre-
sented by small splints of bone (2 and 5)
occurring at the upper and lower ends
of the two middle metacarpals. In this
animal these middle metacarpals (3 and
4) still remain separate from one another,
but in the Deer, Sheep, and Cattle they
have become completely welded to-
gether to form a single bone, known
as the " cannon-bone." In some Deer FIG. so.-The bones of

the upper part of

the outer metacarpals are represented the foot, or meta-

, ,. , j£ carpus, of an extinct

merely by splints at the upper end or Even-toed ungulate
this cannon-bone, and in others by tGelom^
similar splints at its lower end. In the Sheep and
Oxen the upper splints have totally disappeared, while
in the Giraffe both upper and lower splints are wanting,
so that the metacarpus is represented only by the
cannon-bone, composed of the originally separate 3rd
and 4th metacarpals. With this more or less complete

240 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

loss of the outer metacarpals, the hoofs of the corre-
sponding digits have likewise gradually diminished in
size, till we find them represented in cattle merely by
the small and totally useless so-called " spurious hoofs,"
while in the Giraffe they have totally disappeared.

These " spurious hoofs " and the metacarpal splints
are therefore rudimentary structures, of no possible
use to their owners, but of the greatest possible interest
to the naturalist, as telling in the clearest and most
unmistakable language (if but the lesson be read aright)
the story of the gradual evolution of the specialised
two-toed foot of the modern even-toed Ungulates from
that of a four-toed ancestor. That this history cannot
be read the other way forwards, so as to make us re-
gard the " spurious hoofs " and the metacarpal splints
as the beginnings of functional toes, is obvious from the
circumstance that it is only among the later formations
that we meet with two- toed Ungulates ; the majority
of the early ones being four-toed. One other point
worthy of notice is that one of the most specialised
representatives of this group — the Giraffe — has suc-
ceeded in totally getting rid of these superfluous rudi-
mentary organs, both externally and internally.

Precisely an analogous series of changes has taken
place among the Odd-Toed Ungulates (Rhinoceroses,
Tapirs, and Horses), in which the third, or middle,
toe and metacarpal are always symmetrical in them-
selves. Thus the earliest extinct members of this
group were furnished with five complete toes; in the
Tapir the first toe (thumb) has disappeared, and the

RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES. 241

fifth is rather small ; while in the Rhinoceros the
disappearance of the fifth leaves only three functional
toes, of which the middle one (third) is much the
largest. Passing over some intermediate forms, we
find in the extinct horse-like animal known as the
Hipparion, the lateral toes have become very small,
short, and useless, while their metacarpals are reduced
to slender bones lying along the sides of the large
third metacarpal. Finally, the modern horse has
totally lost the lateral toes, and their metacarpals
(2nd and 4th) are merely represented by small splints
lying parallel to the upper end of the third meta-
carpal— now known as the cannon-bone — in the same
position as the upper splints (2nd and 5th) in Fig. 80.
Here then, again, we have true rudimentary organs —
the remnants of bones once functional — which are
not only of no sort of use to their owner, but, on the
contrary, are absolutely injurious to him, since it is
from inflammation, due to hard work, arising in these
bones which gives rise to the disease known as " splint "
in horses.

Except for the presence of these " splints " the
horse appears to our ideas to be an absolutely perfect
type of animal ; and, indeed, so far as we can see, is
the supreme development of which the Odd-toed Ungu-
late stock is susceptible. If the horse were unknown,
and the rhinoceros and tapir the only representatives
of the Odd-toed group, it might have been readily con-
ceived that their speed and agility could be improved by
diminishing the number of their toes, and lengthening

Q

242 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

their limbs, but no one can suggest any improvement
in the general structure of the horse, which is in every
way adapted for the attainment of the highest speed,
coupled with endurance and power.

Of perhaps still greater interest are the rudiments
of hind limbs found deeply imbedded in the bodies
of purely aquatic mammals, such as Whales and
Dugongs, in which, as is well known, there is not the
slightest external trace of such limbs, although the
fore limbs are large, and modified into powerful
paddles. The woodcut, Fig. 81, shows these structures.

FIJ. 81.— Side view of the bones of the rudimentary hind limb of the Whale.
i, pelvis ; /, thigh-bone ; f, leg-bone.

as found in the Greenland Whale. The long horizontal
bone represents the pelvis of ordinary mammals ; while
the nearly vertical bone (/), which is about eight inches
long, appears to correspond to the thigh-bone, and
the little nodule t is the sole remnant of the bones
of the lower leg. In the Sperm Whale even these
useless remnants of a hind limb have completely
vanished, although parts of the pelvis still remain:
Many considerations have led to the conclusion that
Whales have originated from land mammals, and

RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES. 243

become gradually adapted to a completely aquatic
condition ; and the existence of these traces of a hind
limb is, therefore, of especial importance from this
point of view.

Much the same story is told by the Dugongs and
Manatees, all the living species of which have lost every
trace of a hind limb ; although in a fossil Miocene
species known as the Halithere, there was a pelvis,
and a small but well-formed thigh-bone, clearly show-
ing relationship with a four-limbed creature. The
so-called coracoid process of the shoulder-blade of
ordinary mammals is another excellent instance of a
rudimentary structure. As we have already mentioned
in the chapter on Egg-laying Mammals, this small pro-
cess, which in the young animal ossifies from a distinct
centre, is the sole remnant of the large coracoid bone
found in the shoulder-girdle of birds and reptiles.

Teeth likewise furnish many very interesting cases
of rudimentary development. It has, indeed, been
stated that rudiments of teeth occur in very young
Parrots, but this does not appear to be really the case ;
no trace of these organs being found in any existing
birds. Since, however, the birds of the Secondary
epoch had useful teeth, we may expect some day to
find their rudiments in some of the Tertiary birds.
One of the most remarkable instances of rudimental
teeth occurs in the Greenland Whale, in which minute
teeth are developed beneath the plates of " whalebone "
or "baleen," with which the upper jaws are covered,
although they never cut the gum. Again, the Nar-

244 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

whale, of the Arctic Seas, has one enormously, long
tusk — usually the left one— projecting from its head ;
while that of the opposite side is quite rudimentary,
and remains as a little nodule in the gum, resembling
the kernel of a nut in its shell. Among the Hoofed
mammals, modern horses usually have but six grinding-
teeth in the upper jaw ; but occasionally a small
seventh tooth, known as the " wolf-tooth," comes up
in front of all the others. This small useless tooth,
which falls out at an early period, represents a much
larger and useful tooth found in the earlier members
of the group to which the horse belongs. Many other
mammals possess rudimentary teeth ; thus bears have
three little knob-like teeth between the upper tusk
and the flesh-tooth, which are of no sort of use, and
are soon lost. They correspond, however, to the well-
developed anterior cheek-teeth found in the dog and
the civet. Many bats, again, show one or more exceed-
ingly minute, almost microscopic teeth, wedged in
between the larger ones, and clearly pointing to their
relationship with other bats in which these small teeth
were large and functional.

Mention must not be omitted of the so-called " vermi-
form appendage " of that peculiar little pouch found at
the junction of the large and small intestine in the
human subject, and known as the ccecum-coli. Not
only is this little appendage absolutely useless, but its
presence may even be the cause of death, since there
is at least one instance known where death has ensued
from a cherry-stone having become firmly fixed in it.

RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES.

245

This appendage of the coecum, as the " coecum-coli "
is called in comparative anatomy, is, however, the
rudiment of an organ attaining an enormous size in
some of the lower mammals, such as the horse arid
rhinoceros, in which it serves as a kind of supple-
mental stomach to aid in the absorption of the large
quantity of food consumed by these animals.

Equally noteworthy is the little point of cartilage
found in the outer rim of the
ear of many persons, and shown
at a, in Fig. 82. This little
point, the existence of which was
first brought to notice by Darwin, (
seems undoubtedly to be the last
remnant of the extreme tip of
the pointed ears of the lower
animals. Its existence appears
to be very inconstant, even in
members of the same family, FIG 82_The human ear
for in one family known to the

writer it is present in the father, but absent in three
out of four of his children.

Perhaps, however, the most interesting instance of
a rudimental organ in the whole animal kingdom is
the central eye, of which mention has been made in
the chapter on " Primeval Salamanders," found buried
deep in the brain of the lizard-like Tuatara of New
Zealand. Here we actually have a perfect eye, fitted
with cornea, lens, and pigment all complete, but totally
concealed from all access of light. That this central eye

246 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PKESENT

is the remnant of one that was originally functional
does not admit of doubt ; but whether we have to go
back to invertebrates before this was the case is, as
mentioned in the chapter referred to, still a matter of
uncertainty.

Among birds we may notice many instances of the
wings having become rudimentary owing to the disuse
of the power of flight. This occurs to a greater or
lesser extent throughout the whole of that great group
comprising the Ostrich, the Cassowary, the Kiwi, and
the extinct Moas (Fig. 46, p. 150) of New Zealand : all
the bones of the wing having completely disappeared
in the last-named birds. There are also numerous in-
stances of the abortion of the wings in that larger
group which includes all other birds ; well-known cases
being those of the Dodo of Mauritius, the Solitaire of
Rodriquez, the Great Blue Water-hen (Notornis) of
New Zealand, and the Great Auk ; all of which, with
the possible exception of Notornis, have become extinct
from their incapacity to fly.

Insects, again, present us with many instances of
rudimentary organs. Thus in the extensive group of
Flies (Diptera) the hinder pair of wings, which are
found fully developed in the Dragon-Flies (Neuro-
ptera), have become aborted into organs like minute
drumsticks, projecting from either side of the body,
and known as "halteres," or balancers. In the Beetles
(Coleoptera), on the other hand, it is the front wings
which have been modified — not, indeed, so as to be
absolutely useless, but so as to serve the purpose of

RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES. 247

covers to protect the delicate second pair which are
carefully folded beneath them. In the same class the
female glow-worm has, however, completely lost her
wings, although they are retained in a closely allied
Italian species. The fleas have both pairs of wings
represented merely by very small scales, which are'
thus typical rudimentary organs.

We might go on indefinitely multiplying instances,
but those we have cited are sufficient to show that
rudimental structures must be regarded as the useless
relics or remnants of structures or organs that were
originally functional and useful ; their occurrence only
in the later and more specialised representatives of
individual groups at once traversing any contention
that might be raised as to their being the commence-
ments of organs which were subsequently to become
functional.

In thus gradually tracing an organ or bone first to
its decadence, and then to its final rudimentary con-
dition or complete disappearance, we have before us
one of the most weighty pieces of evidence in sup-
port of the doctrine of evolution that can be adduced.
No hypothesis, indeed, but that of evolution can pos-
sibly offer any rational explanation of rudimentary
structures ; whereas this doctrine assigns a satisfac-
tory and definite reason for their existence. On the
old view of the separate creation of every species, the
existence of the useless, and to some extent harmful,
splint-bones in the horse's-foot is absolutely inex-
plicable in any way that will commend itself to a

248 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT.

thoughtful and unbiassed mind. The following in-
stance will, perhaps, serve to illustrate this point more
fully. All of us are aware that paddle-wheel steam-
vessels were in use long before those propelled by a
screw were invented. Now if a naval architect had
to alter a paddle-steamer into one driven by a screw,
we should not be surprised to detect in the altered
vessel traces of the foundations of the paddle-boxes,
or part of the axle that once turned the paddle-wheels.
If, however, this architect were ordered to construct
a screw-steamer new from keel to deck, and actually
went out of his way to build the foundations of
paddle-boxes, and the ends of the axle for paddle-
wheels, which were not only ugly and absolutely use-
less, but also an actual impediment to the free use
and working of the ship, no one would have a moment's
hesitation in declaring that such a man was utterly
unfit for his business.

THE END.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

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[Continued,

A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE.

BADMINTON LIBRARY (The)— (continued).

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Endymion.
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Coningsby.

Venetia.

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Alroy, Ixion, &c.
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Tancred. Sybil.

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6 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE

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SELECTIONS FROM WORKS. Crown 8vo. ^s. 6d.

LUCK, OR CUNNING, AS THE MAIN MEANS OF ORGANIC

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- EX VOTO. An Account of the Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at
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HOLBEIN'S ' LA DANSE '. y.

CARLYLE (Thomas).— THOMAS CARLYLE: a History of his Life. By
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CASE (Thomas).— PHYSICAL REALISM : being an Analytical Philosophy
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CHETWYND (Sir George).— RACING REMINISCENCES AND EX-
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CHILD (Gilbert W.).— CHURCH AND STATE UNDER THE
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CHISHOLM (G. G.).— HANDBOOK OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY.

With 29 Maps. 8vo. i6s.
CHURCH (Sir Richard). — Commander-in-Chief of the Greeks in the War

of Independence : a Memoir. By STANLEY LANE-POOLE. 8vo. 5*.

CLIVE (Mrs. Archer).— POEMS. Including the IX. Poems. Fcp. 8vo. 6s.

CLODD (Edward).— THE STORY OF CREATION : a Plain Account of

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COLENSO (J. W.).— THE PENTATEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA

CRITICALLY EXAMINED. Crown 8vo. 6s.

COMYN (L. M".).— ATHERSTONE PRIORY : a Tale. Crown 8vo. 2*. 6d.
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English Verse. Crown 8vo. 65.
THE POEMS OF VIRGIL. Translated into English Prose. Cr. 8vo.6.r.

COX (Rev. Sir G. "W.).— A HISTORY OF GREECE, from the Earliest
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PUBLISHED By MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN, & co. y

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, — AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT

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CURZCXN" (Hon. George W.).— RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA IN 1889

AND THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN QUESTION. 8vo. 215.

DANTE.— LA COMMEDIA DI DANTE. A New Text, carefully Revised
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DE LA SAITSSAYE (Prof. Chantepie).-A MANUAL OF THE
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DELA3STD (Mrs.).— JOHN WARD, PREACHER. Cr. 8vo. 2s. bds., as. 6d. cl.

SIDNEY : a Novel. Crown 8vo. 65.

THE OLD GARDEN, and other Verses. Fcp. 8vo. 55.

DE REDCLIFFE.— THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HON. STRATFORD
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DO-WELL (Stephen).— A HISTORY OF TAXATION AND TAXES IN
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Vols. III. and IV., The History of Taxes, 215.

DOYLE (A. Conan).— MICAH CLARKE : a Tale of Monmouth's Rebellion.
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THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR ; and other Tales. Cr. 8vo. 65.

A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS

GENERAL LITERATURE

DRAWE (Augusta T.).— THE HISTORY OF ST. DOMINIC, FOUNDER
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DUBLIN" UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES (The) : a Series of Works
undertaken by the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin.

Maguire's (T.) Parmenides of Plato,

Text with Introduction, Analysis,
&c. Svo. 7S. 6d.

Abbott's (T. K.) Codex Rescriptus

Dublinensis of St.Matthew. 410. 2u.

EYangeliorum Yersio Ante-

hieronyraiana ex Codice Usseriano
(Dublinensi). 2 vols. Cr. 8vo. 2is.

Allman's (G. J.) Greek Geometry from
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Burnside (W. S.) and Panton's (A. W.)
Theory of Equations. 8vo. 125. 6d.

Casey's (John) Sequel to Euclid's Ele-
ments. Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d.

Analytical Geometry of the

Conic Sections. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d.

Davies'(J. F.) Eumenides of /Eschylus,
With Metrical English Translation.
8vo. ?s.

Dublin Translations into Greek and
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FITZWYG-RAM (Major-General Sir F.).— HORSES AND STABLES.
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FROUDE (James A.).— THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Fall of
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GARDINER (Samuel Rawson).— HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 1603-

1642. 10 vols. Crown 8vo; price 6s. each.
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GOETHE.— FAUST. A New Translation chiefly in Blank Verse ; with Intro-
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ADEY BIRDS. Crown 8vo. 6s.

GREEN (T. H.)— THE WORKS OF THOMAS HILL GREEN. (3 Vols.)

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8vo. 2s.

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io A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE

GWILT (Joseph).— AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ARCHITECTURE.
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HAGGARD (Ella).— LIFE AND ITS AUTHOR: an Essay in Verse.
With a Memoir by H. Rider Haggard, and Portrait. Fcp. Svo. y. 6d.

HAGGARD (H. Rider).— SHE. With 32 Illustrations. Crown Svo. y. 6d.

ALLAN QUATERMAIN. With 31 Illustrations. Crown Svo. y. 6d.

- MAIWA'S REVENGE. Crown Svo. is. boards, is. 6d. cloth.

COLONEL QUARITCH, V.C. Crown Svo. y. 6d.

CLEOPATRA : With 29 Illustrations. Crown Svo. y. 6d.

BEATRICE. Crown Svo. dr.

ERIC BRIGHTEYES. With 51 Illustrations. Crown Svo. 6s.

HAGGARD (H. Ride^) and LANG (Andrew).— THE WORLD'S
DESIRE. Crown Svo. 65.

HAIiIiIWELIi-PHILLIPPS (J. O.)— A CALENDAROFTHEHALLI-
WELL-PHILLIPPS COLLECTION OF SHAKESPEAREAN RARITIES.
Second Edition. Enlarged by Ernest E. Baker. Svo. los. 6d.

OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. 2 vols. Royal

SVO. 21S.

HARRISON (Jane E.).— MYTHS OF THE ODYSSEY IN ART AND
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HARRISON (F. Bayford).— THE CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Crown Svo. 35. 6d.

HARTE (Bret).— IN THE CARQUINEZ WOODS. Fcp. Svo. is. bds.,
fs. 6d. cloth.

BY SHORE AND SEDGE. i6mo. is.

ON THE FRONTIER. i6mo. 15.

HART WIG (Dr.).— THE SEA AND ITS LIVING WONDERS. With 12

Plates and 303 Woodcuts. Svo. los. 6d.

THE TROPICAL WORLD. With 8 Plates and 172 W'oodcuts. Svo. los. 6d:
THE POLAR WORLD. With 3 Maps, 8 Plates and 85 Woodcuts. Svo. los. 6d.
THE SUBTERRANEAN WORLD. With 3 Maps and So Woodcuts. Svo. ios.6d.
THE AERIAL WORLD. With Map, 8 Plates and 60 Woodcuts. Svo. ICM. 6d.

HA VELOCK.— MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, K.C.B. By
JOHN CLARK MARSHMAN. Crown 8vo. y. 6d.

HEARN (W. Edward).— THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND: its

Structure and its Development. Svo. i6s.

THE ARYAN HOUSEHOLD : its Structure and ts Development.

An Introduction to Comparative Jurisprudence. Svo. i6s.

HISTORIC TOWNS. Edited by E. A. FREEMAN and Rev. WILLIAM HUNT.

With Maps and Plans. Crown Svo. y. 6d. each.

Bristol. By Rev. W. Hunt. Winchester. By Rev. G. W. Kitchin.

Carlisle. By Dr. Mandell Creighton. ; New York. By Theodore Roosevelt.
Cinque Ports. By Montagu Burrows. ! Boston (U.S.). By Henry Cabot

Colchester. By Rev. E. L. Cults.
Exeter. By E. A. Freeman.
London. By Rev. W. I. Loftie.
Oxford. By Rev. C. W. Boase.

Lodge.
York. By Rev. James Raine.

\In preparation.

PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. n

HODGSON (Shadworth H.).~ TIME AND SPACE: a Metaphysical

Essay. 8vo. i6j.
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF REFLECTION. 2 vols. 8vo. 21*.

OUTCAST ESSAYS AND VERSE TRANSLATIONS. Crown 8vo.

Ss. 6d.

HOWITT (William).— VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES. 80 Illus-
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HULLAH (John).— COURSE OF LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF
MODERN MUSIC. 8vo. 8j. 6d.

COURSE OF LECTURES ON THE TRANSITION PERIOD OF

MUSICAL HISTORY. 8vo. ior. 6d.

HUME.— THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF DAVID HUME. Edited
by T. H. GREEN and T. H. GROSE. 4 vols. 8vo. 56^.

HUTCHINSON (Horace).— CREATURES OF CIRCUMSTANCE: a
Novel. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. 25^. 6d.

FAMOUS GOLF LINKS. By HORACE G. HUTCHINSON, ANDREW

LANG, H. S. C. EVKRARD, T. RUTHERFORD CLARK, &c. \\ ith numerous
Illustrations by F. P. Hopkins, T. Hodges, H. S. King, &c. Crown 8vo. 6s.

HUTH (Alfred H.).— THE MARRIAGE OF NEAR KIN. Royal 8vo. ais.

INGEIiOW (Jean).— POETICAL WORKS. Vols. I. and II. Fcp. 8vo.
i2s. Vol. III. Fcp. 8vo. 5j.

LYRICAL AND OTHER POEMS. Selected from the Writings of

JEAN INGELOW. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. cloth plain, y. cloth gilt.

- VERY YOUNG and QUITE ANOTHER STORY : Two Stories.
Crown 8vo. 6s.

JAMESON (Mrs.).— SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART. With 19 Etch-
ings and 187 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 8vo. 2os. net.

— LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA, the Virgin Mary as represented in
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LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. With n Etchings and

88 Woodcuts. 8vo. io.r. net.

HISTORY OF OUR LORD. His Types and Precursors. Completed by

LADY EASTLAKE. With 31 Etchings and 281 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 8vo. 205. net.

JEFFERIES (Richard).— FIELD AND HEDGEROW, Last Essays.

Crown 8vo. y. 6d.
THE STORY OF MY HEART : My Autobiography. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d.

JENNINGS (Rev. A. C.).- ECCLESIA ANGLICANA. A History of the
Church of Christ in England. Crown 8vo. js. 6d.

12 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE ,

JESSOP (G. H.).— JUDGE LYNCH : a Tale of the California Vineyards.
Crown 8vo. 6s.

JOHNSON (J. & J. H.).— THE PATENTEE'S MANUAL; a Treatise on
the Law and Practice of Letters Patent. 8vo. xos. 6d.

JORDAN (William Leighton).— THE STANDARD OF VALUE. 8vo.6j.

JUSTINIAN.— THE INSTITUTES OF JUSTINIAN ; Latin Text, with
English Introduction, &c. By THOMAS C. SANDARS. 8vo. i8s.

KALISCH (M. M.).— BIBLE STUDIES. Part I. The Prophecies of
Balaam. 8vo. IQJ. 6d. Part II. The Book of Jonah. 8vo. IQJ. 6d.

KALISCH (M. M.).— COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT ; with
a New Translation. Vol. I. Genesis, 8vo. i8s., or adapted for the General
Reader, I2J. Vol. II. Exodus, 155. , or adapted for the General Reader, i2s.
Vol. III. Leviticus, Part I. 155., or adapted for the General Reader, 8s.
Vol. IV. Leviticus, Part II. 155. , or adapted for the General Reader, 8s.

KANT (Immanuel).— CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON, AND
OTHER WORKS ON THE THEORY OF ETHICS. 8vo. 12*. 6d.

INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC. Translated by T. K. Abbott. Notes

by S. T. Coleridge. 8vo. 6s.

KENNEDY (Arthur Clark).— PICTURES IN RHYME. With 4 Illus-
trations by Maurice Greiffenhagen. Crown 8vo. 6s.

KILLICK (Rev. A. H.).— HANDBOOK TO MILL'S SYSTEM OF
LOGIC. Crown 8vo. y. 6d.

KNIGHT (E. F.).— THE CRUISE OF THE ' ALERTE' ; the Narrative of
a Search for Treasure on the Desert Island of Trinidad. With 2 Maps and
23 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. T.OS. 6d.

: — SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS : a Novel. Crown 8vo. 65.

LADD (George T.).— ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHO-
LOGY. 8vo. zis.

OUTLINES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY. A Text- Book

of Mental Science for Academies and Colleges. 8vo. i2.r.

LANG (Andrew).— CUSTOM AND MYTH : Studies of Early Usage and
Belief. With 15 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d.

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN. With 2 Coloured Plates and 17 Illustra-
tions. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.

GRASS OF PARNASSUS. A Volume of Selected Verses. Fcp. 8vo. 6s.

BALLADS OF BOOKS. Edited by ANDREW LANG. Fcp. 8vo. 6.r.

THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK. Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 8

Plates and 130 Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo. 65.

THE RED FAIRY BOOK. Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 4 Plates

and 96 Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo. 6s.

THE BLUE POETRY BOOK. With 12 Plates and 88 Illustrations in

the Text. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ANGLING SKETCHES. With Illustrations by W. G. BURN-

MURDOCH. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d.

LAVISSE (Ernest).— GENERAL VIEW OF THE POLITICAL HIS-
TORY OF EUROPE.

PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN, 6> CO. 13

LA YARD (Nina F.).~ POEMS. Crown 8vo. 6s.

LECKY(W. E. H.).— HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY. 8vo. Vols. I. and II. 1700-1760. 36^. Vols. III. arid IV.

1760-1784. 36^. Vols. V. and VI. 1784-1793. 36*. Vols. VII. and VIII.

1793-1800. 36.?.
THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN MORALS FROM AUGUSTUS

TO CHARLEMAGNE. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. i6s.

HISTORY OF THE RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT

OF RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. i6s.
POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. $s.

LEES (J. A.) and CLUTTERBUCK (W. J.).— B.C. 1887, A RAMBLE
IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. With Map and 75 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo. 6*.

LEGER (Louis).— A HISTORY OF AUS PRO-HUNGARY. From the
Earliest Time to the year 1889. With Preface by E. A. Freeman. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d.

LEWES (George Henry).— THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, from
Thales to Comte. 2 vo s. 8vo. 32^.

LIDDELL (Colonel R. T.).— MEMOIRS OF THE TENTH ROYAL
HUSSARS. With Numerous Illustrations. 2 vols. Imperial 8vo. 63^.

LONGMAN (Frederick "W".).— CHESS OPENINGS. Fcp. 8vo. zs. 6d.

FREDERICK THE GREAT AND THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR.

Fcp. 8vo. 25. 6d.

LONGMORE (Sir T.).— RICHARD WISEMAN, Surgeon and Sergeant-
Surgeon to Charles II. A Biographical Study. With Portrait.

LOUDON (J. C.).— ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GARDENING. With 1000

WoodcUtS. 8VO. 215.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE ; the Laying-out, Improve-
ment, and Management of Landed Property. With noo Woodcuts. 8vo. 215'.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PLANTS ; the Specific Character, &c., of all

Plants found in Great Britain. With 12,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 42*.

LUBBOCK (Sir J.).— THE ORIGIN OF CIVILISATION and the Primitive
Condition of Man. With 5 Plates and 20 Illustrations in the Text. 8vo. i8.y.

LYALL (Edna).— THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER. Fcp. 8vo.

ij. sewed.
LYDE {Lionel W.).— AN INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT HISTORY.

With 3 Coloured Maps. Crown 8vo. y.

MACATJLAY (Lord).— COMPLETE WORKS OF LORD MACAULAY.

Library Edition, 8 vols. 8vo. ^5 y.

Cabinet Edition, 16 vols. post 8vo.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES

THE SECOND.

Popular Edition, 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
Student's Edition, 2 vols. Crown 8vo.

People's Edition, 4 vols. Crown 8vo. i6s.
Cabinet Edition, 8 vols. Post 8vo. 48*.
12$. Library Edition, 5 vols. 8vo. ,£4.

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS, WITH LAYS OF

ANCIENT ROME, in i volume.

Popular Edition, Crown Svo. zs. 6d. I Authorised Edition, Crown 8vo. 2s.

I 6d., or 3J. 6d. gilt edges.

[Continued.

16 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE

MAX MULLER (P.)— INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RE-
LIGION ; FourLectures delivered at the Royal Institution. Crown 8vo. js. 6d.

NATURAL RELIGION. The Gifford Lectures, delivered before the

University of Glasgow in 1888. Crown 8vo. los. 6d.

- PHYSICAL RELIGION. The Gifford Lectures, delivered before the,
University of Glasgow in 1890. Crown 8vo. 105. 6d.

THE SCIENCE OF THOUGHT. 8vo. 2is.

THREE INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF

THOUGHT. 8vo. as. 6d.

BIOGRAPHIES OF WORDS, AND THE HOME OF THE ARYAS.

Crown 8vo. js. 6d.

A SANSKRIT GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. New and Abridged

Edition. By A. A. MACDONELL. Crown 8vo. 6j.

MAY (Sir Thomas Erskine).— THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY
OF ENGLAND since the Accession of George III. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. i8.r.

MEADE (L. T.).— THE O'DONNELLS OF INCHFAWN. Crown 8vo. 6s.
DADDY'S BOY. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 55.

DEB AND THE DUCHESS. Illustrated by M. E. Edwards. Cr.8vo.5J.

HOUSE OF SURPRISES. Illustrated by E. M. ScanneU. Cr. 8vo. 3*. 6d.

THE BERESFORD PRIZE. Illustrated by M.E. Edwards. Cr. 8vo. y.

MEATH (The Earl of).— SOCIAL ARROWS: Reprinted Articles on
various Social Subjects. Crown 8vo. 55.

- PROSPERITY OR PAUPERISM ? Physical, Industrial, and Technical
Training. Edited by the EARL OF MEATH. 8vo. 5*.

MELVILLE (G. J. Whyte).— Novels by. Crown 8vo. is. each, boards ;
is. 6d. each, cloth.

The Gladiators.
The Interpreter.
Good for Nothing.

The Queen's Maries.
Holrnby House.
Kate Coventry.

Digby Grand.
General Bounce.

MENDELSSOHN.— THE LETTERS OF FELIX MENDELSSOHN.
Translated by Lady Wallace. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. IDS.

MERIVALE (Rev. Chas.).— HISTORY OF THE ROMANS UNDER
THE EMPIRE. Cabinet Edition, 8 vols. Crown 8vo. 485. Popular Edition,
8 vols. Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d. each.

THE FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC : a Short History of the

Last Century of the Commonwealth. i2mo. 7*. 6d.

- GENERAL HISTORY OF ROME FROM B.C. 753 TO A.D. 476.
Cr. 8vo. 7J. 6d.

- THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES. With Maps. Fcp. 8vo. as. 6d.

MILES (W. A.).— THE CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM AUGUSTUS
MILES ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789-1817. 2 vols. 8vo. 32*.

MILL (James).— ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF THE HUMAN
MIND. 2 vols. 8vo. 285.

MILL (John Stuart).— PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Library Edition, 2 vols. 8vo. y>s. \ People's Edition, i vol. Crown 8vo.3J. 6d.

A SYSTEM OF LOGIC. Crown 8vo. y. 6d.

ON LIBERTY. Crown 8vo. is. 4<f. [Continued.

PUBLISHES BY MESSRS. tOJVGMAJVS, GREEN, & CO. 17

MILL (J. S.).— ON REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. Crown 8vo. 2s.

UTILITARIANISM. 8vo. y.

EXAMINATION OF SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON'S PHILO-
SOPHY. 8vo. idr.

NATURE, THE UTILITY OF RELIGION AND THEISM. Three

Essays, 8vo. 5*.

MOLESWORTH (Mrs.).— MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE :
a Novel. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

— SILVERTHORNS. With Illustrations by F. Noel Paton. Cr. 8vo. 5*.
- THE PALACE IN THE GARDEN. With Illustrations. Cr. 8vo. 5*.

THE THIRD MISS ST. QUENTIN. Crown 8vo. 6s.

— NEIGHBOURS. With Illustrations by M. Ellen Edwards. Cr. 8vo. dr.

- THE STORY OF A SPRING MORNING. With Illustrations. Cr.8vo.ss.

MOORE (Edward).— DANTE AND HIS EARLY BIOGRAPHERS.
Crown 8vo. 45. 6d.

MULHALL (Michael G.).— HISTORY OF PRICES SINCE THE YEAR
1850. Crown 8vo. 6s.

MURRAY (David Christie and Henry).— A DANGEROUS CATS-
PAW : a Story. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.

MURRAY (Christie) and HERMAN (Henry ).-WILD DARRIE:
a Story. Crown 8vo. 2s. boards ; 2s. 6d. cloth.

NANSEN (Dr. Fridtjof ).— THE FIRST CROSSING OF GREENLAND.
With J Maps, 12 Plates, and 150 Illustrations in the Text. 2 vols. 8vo. 36^.

NAPIER.— THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH NAPIER, BART., EX-LORD
CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND. By ALEX. CHARLES EWALD. 8vo. 15*.

THE LECTURES, ESSAYS, AND LETTERS OF THE RIGHT

HON. SIR JOSEPH NAPIER, BART. 8vo. 121. 6d.

NESBIT (E.).— LEAVES OF LIFE : Verses. Crown 8vo. 55.

NEWMAN.— THE LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN
HENRY NEWMAN during his Life in the English Church. With a brief
Autobiographical Memoir. Edited by Anne Mozley. With Portraits, 2 vols.
8vo. 3OJ. net.

NEWMAN (Cardinal).— Works by:—

Sermons to Mixed Congregations.

Crown 8vo. 6s.
Sermons on Various Occasions. Cr.

8vo. dr.
The Idea of a University defined and

illustrated. Cabinet Edition, Cr. 8vo.

js. Cheap Edition, Cr. 8vo. y. 6d.
Historical Sketches. Cabinet Edition,

3 vols. Crown 8vo. 6s. each. Cheap

Edition, 3 vols. Cr. 8vo. y. 6d. each.

The Arians of the Fourth Century.

Cabinet Edition, Crown 8vo. 6*.

Cheap Edition, Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.
Select Treatises of St. Athanasius in

Controversy with the Arians. Freely

Translated. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo. 15^.
Discussions and Arguments on Various

Subjects. Cabinet Edition, Crown

8vo. 6s. Cheap Edition, Crown

8vo. 3f. 6d.

[Continued.

i8 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE

NEWMAN" (Cardinal).— Works by '.—(continued).

Apologia Pro Yita Sua. Cabinet Ed. ,
Crown 8vo. 6s. Cheap Ed. y. 6d.

Development of Christian Doctrine.
Cabinet Edition, Crown 8vo. 6s.
Cheap Edition, Cr. 8vo. 3^. 6d.

Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans
in Catholic Teaching Considered.
Cabinet Edition. Vol. I. Crown 8vo.
7s. 6d. ; Vol. II. Crown 8vo. 55. 6d.
Cheap Edition, 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
3-r. 6d. each.

The Via Media of the Anglican Church,
Illustrated in Lectures, &c. Cabinet
Edition, 2 vols. Cr. 8vo. 6s. each.
Cheap Edition, 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
y. 6d. each.

Essays, Critical and Historical. Cabi-
net Edition, 2 vols. Crown 8vo. i2s.
Cheap Edition, 2 vols. Cr. 8vo. 75.

Biblical and Ecclesiastical Miracles.
Cabinet Edition, Crown 8vo. 6s.
Cheap Edition, Crown 8vo. 35. 6d.

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