Bird Banding

Bizarre as the idea may seem at first, birds are more closely allied to reptiles (q.v.) than to any other living group of verte brates. The bird, while similar to the reptile in much of its struc ture, in its superior mental capacity, and concomitant adaptations that this has permitted, has far outstripped its lowly cousins, and so has flourished and multiplied while its cold-blooded relatives with decreasing numbers have fallen behind in the race of life. From one viewpoint we may look upon the bird as the attempt of the reptilian groups to retain the dominance of the earth that was theirs during the Mesozoic era, a design that was frustrated by the development of mammals.

The earliest birds known were contemporaneous with dinosaurs (q.v.), to which, structurally, they seem to have close affinity, particularly to the hollow-boned, agile, bird-like groups. As these creatures existed at a time when primitive birds were also known search must be carried farther into the ages for a generalized reptilian group from which both birds and dinosaurs may have sprung. This, apparently, is found in the fossil reptiles known as the Pseudosuchians, of early Triassic times; though according to some the original ancestor of the bird-like creatures should be sought in still older ages in the Permian.

Fossil Birds.

The bones of birds are so poorly preserved in the fossil state that there is record now of only about 75o fossil forms, including some of questionable identity. The earliest fossils known are Archaeopteryx (q.v.) and Archaeornis of the Jurassic beds of Bavaria, creatures with toothed jaws, very long, bony tails with feathers projecting along the sides, and free fingers, that in spite of their reptilian form, were birds, as they were covered with feathers and were able to fly. In the Cretaceous period two types of birds, both possessing teeth, are known from nearly complete skeletons, Hesperornis and its allies, diver-like species that lived in water and seemed to have had no wings, and Ichthyornis which was aerial and may have had the habits of a gull (see ODON TORNITHES). These four are the most peculiar fossil birds known at present, since others, while often strange, are allied more or less closely to modern families.

At the beginning of the Tertiary period the types of birds found were suggestive, in form, of existing birds, though in the Eocene some were highly peculiar, and most seem to pertain to extinct families. In the Miocene there occur a number of birds very

closely similar to those existing to-day, and in the Pleistocene are found bones of numerous birds still in existence, in addition to many that differed from modern forms.

The progress of the avian group since the coming of the Pleistocene ice seems to have been one of extermination rather than of consistent evolutionary progress, as peculiar types seem to have been exterminated in numbers during the Pleistocene, and there is no indication that others have developed to take their places except for the minor characters that distinguish sub-species or poorly-marked species. The story of fossil birds is far from complete, and much work remains to be done on many of those at present discovered, to establish their relationship.

It

is difficult to arrive at an exact figure for the number of kinds of birds now known, but at a conservative estimate it is believed this may reach 25,000 distinct forms.

The primary group or class, Ayes, is one of the great divisions of the vertebrates and -is equal in rank to the fishes, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. This class is divided into two sub-classes, the first, the Archaeornithes, containing the most primitive birds which are very close to reptiles, and the second, the Neornithes, all other known birds. The Neornithes are divided again into three major divisions or super-orders, the Odontognathae, contain ing forms with teeth, the Palaeognathae, for the ostrich-like birds and their allies, which have a primitive arrangement of the bones of the palate, and the Neognathae, including the remaining species with a more specialized modern type of palatal structure. These super-orders are divided again into orders, sub-orders, super families and families. An arrangement embodying modern ideas of classification follows: Class A yes.

Sub-class ARCHAEORNITHES Order Archaeopterygiformes Family Archaeopterygidae, Archaeopteryx, Archaeornis (fossil) Sub-class NEORNITHES Super-order Odontognathae, toothed bird Order Hesperornithiformes Family Hesperornithidae, Hesperornis, Hargeria (fossil) „ Enaliornithidae, Enaliornis (fossil) [position provisional] Order Ichthyornithiformes Family Ichthyornithidae, Ichthyornis (fossil) Super-order Palaeognathae Order Struthioniformes Family Struthionidae, Ostriches (Old World) Order Rheiformes Family Rheidae, Rheas (South America)