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Fossil Birds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2016
Extract
The wonderful remains of the Archæopteryx, recently acquired for the British Museum, have naturally drawn attention to a muchneglected department of palæontology; and it will therefore not only be interesting, but useful also to the advance of science, to pass under review, at the present time, the state of our knowledge of the former existence of birds during past geological ages. The early authors, for the most part, speak not of fossil bird-remains properly so called, but in reality of mere incrustations by “petrifying springs,” of the fanciful tracery of dendritic markings, or the imagined resemblances of oddly-formed stones. Thus Albertus Magnus, in his book ‘De Mineralibus,’ printed in 1495, describes a fossil nest, with eggs, on the branch of a tree. This might or might not be a true fossil, but our recent discoveries of fossil birds and reptiles' eggs, and the knowledge we have now of delicate objects truly fossilized, such as insects, fruits, flowers, and feathers, renders it possible that some of the old records of such may have had a foundation of truth, and gives a probability that some at least may be brought within the capacity of belief as actual facts.
With this view, we shall quote from the old authors all the passages known to us, commenting on them as occasion may require; and in thus working up the bibliography of fossil ornithology and arranging the whole of our knowledge of the subject, as far as we have the power to do so, we shall be able to separate facts from fictions, and give a solid basis for further investigations in the future study of ornithological palæontology.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1863
References
page 417 note * Magnus, Albertus, ‘De Mineralibus,’ lib. i. p. 3 Google Scholar. tract, f. cap. vii., edit. 1495.
page 417 note † The works of Agricola are—‘De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum,’ lib. V. ‘De Natura eorum quæ effluunt ex Terra,’ lib. viii. ‘De Natura Fossilium,’ lib. x. ‘De Veteribus et Novis Metallis,’ lib. ii. ‘Bermannus, sive de Re Metallica Dialogus.’ ‘Interpretatio Germanica Vocum Rei Metallicæ, addito Indice fœcuudissimo.’—Basileæ, edit. 1546.
page 418 note * Also in edit. Patavii, 1711, lib. v. cap. iv. p. 157 (word for word).
page 420 note * ‘Vale Hanoviæ et Salve Cassellæ dictum. Cujus Occasione Inventa quædam Hanoica utrisque Dilectissimis suis Popularibus Communicare, se suaque Studia de Meliori Commendare, atque prioribus benevolam sui memoriam relinquere voluit. Petrus Wolfart, Med. Doct., in Illustri Schola Patria Anatomise hactenus et Philosophiæ Experimentalis Professor, nec non utriusque Hanoviæ Physicus Ordinarius, nune vero Physicus Aulicus Hasso-Castellanus, cum ad Stationem suam novam capessendam, Abitionem paratet. Anno Christi, 1707, die 18 Aprilis, Francfort ad Mœmun.’
page 421 note § IV. Quo vero eo melius hæc nostra figurata ab omnibus ac singulis intelligi queant et ut omnis eo facilius inter ilia evitetur confusio; operæ prætium facturos nos putamus, si relictis aliis spinosis et futilibus circa illorum productionem oberrantibus opinionibus, cum hic quilibet suo videatur abundare ingenio, ea dispescamus in duplicem classem, alia adscribendo mero accidentali Naturæ Lusui, alia e contra a Diluvio illo Universali.
page 423 note * In the British Museum copy the plate containing the figure of the bird from Œningen is wanting.
page 423 note † Mylius, , ‘Memorabilium Saxoniæ Subterraneæ,’ Leipzig, 1709, p. 47 Google Scholar.
page 423 note ‡ Literally, “4 Ellen starck.”
page 424 note * The title of this work is,—“Maslographia, oder Beschreibung dea Schlesiehen Massel, im Oelfs-Bernstädtischen Fürstenthum mit seinen Schauwürdigkeiten. Von Leonhard David Hermann. Brieg. 1711.”