FOSSIL remains have been found of birds with teeth and long bony tails, and also of reptiles, with wings; great monsters they must have been—veritable flying dragons.

In 1861, in the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, Bavaria, a fossil feather was found which was the subject of considerable discussion among naturalists. Again, in 1862, a curious skeleton was disinterred from the same place, in which most of the bones exhibited the marks of a true bird, but the skeleton had a most remarkable tail, containing twenty distinct bones. From each of these bones proceeded a pair of well-developed feathers, similar to the single feather which had been previously found. Here was an animal which could be called a birdlike reptile or a lizardlike bird, with equal propriety. Its twenty caudal segments or vertebrÆ were a bar to its entrance to every existing family of birds, while it was equally out of place among reptiles.