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4 in minor points, is still near enough to the truth to give a correct idea of this extraordinary bird's appearance.

The Archæopteryx was about the size of a Crow. Its long, feathered tail is supposed to have acted as an aero&shy;plane, assisting in the support of the bird while it was in the air, but its power of flight was doubtless limited. It was arboreal and probably never descended to the earth, but climbed about the branches of trees, using its large, hooked fingers in passing from limb to limb.

The wanderings of this almost quadrupedal creature must necessarily have been limited, but its winged de&shy;scendants of to-day are more generally distributed than are any other animals. They roam the earth from pole to pole&thinsp;; they are equally at home on a wave-washed coral reef or in an arid desert, amid arctic snows or in the shades of a tropical forest. This is due not alone to their powers of flight but to their adaptability to vary&shy;ing conditions of life. Although, as I have said, birds are more closely related among themselves than are the members of either of the other higher groups of animals, and all birds agree in possessing the more important distinguishmg characters of their class, yet they show a wide range of variation in structure.

This, in most instances, is closely related to habits,