Staunton Vindicator

Mammoth Birds and Reptiles.
Ages ago there were bird reptiles and
reptilian birds. Some had wings for flying
with a spread of twenty-five feet-veritable
dragons, in fact. Others, forty feet in
length, had paddles for swimming like a
whale's. These latter lived in the seas,
though occasionally they came on shore.
It is known from their petrified droppings,
which are plentifully found to-day, that
they lived upon fish. One species dived to
great depths in the ocean and was most
rapacious and predatory. It had enormous
eyes to see with in deep water, its head re-
sembling an alligator's. Another kind
with a very long neck inhabited the shoals
and preyed upon the fishes of the shallows.
The first serpents, too, belonged in the
sea, and grew to be forty feet long. They
had no poison, but were constrictors, like
the boa. There were many kinds of croco-
diles fifty feet from snout to tail, whereas
the biggest ones now are not more than
fifteen feet. During the same period lived
the birds with teeth, which were only dis-
covered a few years ago. Biggest of these
was the hesperornis, which stood six feet
high and had only rudimentary wings.
It did not fly, therefore, but was simply a
swimmer and diver, subsisting on fish.
The ichthyornis was somewhat similar in
appearance and habits, but not much larg-
er than a pigeon.
It is supposed that these strange water
fowl were wiped out by the giant swim-
ming lizards, eighty feet long, and clad in
bony armor plates, which resembled the
modern conception of the sea serpent. The
turtles should not be forgotten, which at-
tained a length of twenty feet and meas-
ured seven feet in height.-Rene Bache in
New York Sun.