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THE ESSEX NATURALIST
of the earlier work to be carried out by different palaeontologists in
reconstruction. He also attempts to give a picture of the landscape at the
time of these reptiles. I quote from page 17: "The Grey Veils of the early
morning mist hung around the lagoons of the upper Jurassic Bavarian
Sea. Far beyond the Eastern Horizon the sun raised its head above the
rosy cradle of the dawn forcing the curtain of mist down to the earth and
the surface of the water. Soon that was gone. Living creatures began to
stir. Big dragon flies hungry after their night's sleep swooped round the
shores of the lagoons snapping up small insects. One of which had just
caught a mayfly alighted on the palm like leaf of a Cycad and devoured
it hungrily, then set off again in search of prey, as it fled before a weird
reptile with long narrow wings and a long tail with a diamond shaped
flap at the end". He then goes on to give an account of several other
flying reptiles.
In the second part of the book he concentrates on fossil birds. In this
section Dr. Augusta goes to great lengths to inform the reader of the
finding of the fossil remains of the first bird-like reptiles, and the purchase
of them.
As in the first section he gives a general description of their bony
structure, and, in conclusion, a brief mention is made of the birds of the
Cretaceous era. The evolutionary changes that took place at the end of
that period of geological time are among the riddles still facing
palaeontologists.
As I have mentioned before this is a book for beginners, but I feel
certain that the experts will agree that it is a fine work well presented
without being too technical in its terminology.
R. Coates.