BIBD 37 BIRD OF FABABISE and suckle them for a time. Birds are feathered bipeds, with wings, used by all but a few aberrant species, for flight. To facilitate this air cells communicat- ing with the lungs permeate the larger bones, and even the huge bills of the hornbill, toucan, etc., the effect being greatly to diminish their weight. The cir- culation is rapid, the blood warmer than in other vertebrates, and the energy, consequently, great. Huxley, in 1864, separated birds into saurururae, contain- ing only the archseopteryx ; the ratitae, including the ostrich and its allies; and th^ carinatse, comprehending all ordinary birds. The oldest bird of which the ac- tual feathered skeleton has been obtained comes from the lithographic slate of Upper Oolitic age, quarried at Solen- hof en in Bavaria ; it is the archseopteryx of Owen. Three specimens of it are known at present: one in Bavaria, the second in South Kensington, London, while the third was sold to the Berlin University Museum, by Herr Haberlein for 80,000 marks. This last specimen of archseopteryx has been examined by Prof. Carl Vogt, who considers that it is neither bird nor reptile, but something intermediate between the two. Owen, in 1846, established four species from the London Clay, described from four or five fragments of bones and skulls found in that Eocene deposit. These include a vulture, a kingfisher, and an ostrich. Bones of birds have been met with some- what plentifully in the Paris gypsum and the Lacustrine Limestone of the Li- magne d'Auvergne, both fresh water strata of Eocene age. From the Miocene beds of France have been obtained about 70 species, among other parrots, tro- gons, flamingoes, secretary birds, and marabout storks, suggesting the present fauna of south Africa. There are birds in the Miocene of the Sewalik Hills in India. Of Post-tertiary species the fin- est, and also the best known, are the gigantic moas from New Zealand, which seem to have been contemporary with man, though now they are extinct. The yet more massive sepiomis, the eggs of which are more than 13 inches in di- ameter, and equal in capacity to 148 hen's eggs, is found in surface deposits in Madagascar. Thus few fossil birds are known, and those few are mostly from the Tertiary or Post-tertiary rocks. In heraldry, birds are regarded, some as emblems of the more active, and oth- ers of the contemplative, life. Among the terms applied to them are mem- bered, armed and close. When birds are mentioned in blazon, without expressing their species, they should be drawn in the form of the blackbird. See also BOB-O-LINK ; CANARY BiRD. BIBD, CHABLES, an American mili* tary oflScer, born in Delaware, June 17, 1838. He entered the volunteer service in 1861, as First Lieutenant, 1st Dela- ware Infantry: was promoted Lieuten- ant-Colonel, 9th Delaware Infantry, in 1864; and was commissioned Colonel of the 1st United States Veteran Infantry, Dec. 24, 1865. On March 2, 1867, he was brevetted First Lieutenant and Captain in the United States army for gallantry in the battle of Fredericksburg, Major for Spottsylvania, and Lieutenant-Col- onel for Petersburg, Va. He was ap- pointed a Second Lieutenant, 14th United States Infantry, in 1866; promoted to Major and Quartermaster in 1895; and commissioned a Colonel of United States Volunteers for the war with Spain, in 1898. He became Brigadier-General in the regular army in 1902, and retired in this year. BIRD-CATCHING SPIDER, a name applied to gigantic spiders of the genera mygdle and epeira, more especially to the mygdle avtcularia, a native of Suri- nam and elsewhere which preys upon insects and small birds which it hunts for and pounces on. It is about two inches long, very hairy, and almost black; its feet when spread out occupy a surface of nearly a foot in diameter. BIRD CHERRY, a small tree (the prunus padus, etc.). It has pendulous racemes of white flowers, which appear in May, and are succeeded by small, black, drupaceous, cherry-like fruits. BIRDE, or BYRD, WILLIAM, an English composer, born about 1543; was educated at Edward VI.'s chapel; be- came organist at Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, and of the Chapel Royal, London, in 1569. He is best known by his fine canon, "Non Nobis Domine," and a vol- ume of "Sacred Songs." He died in London, July 4, 1623. BIRD LICE, the common name given to the small parasites so frequently seen infesting birds. Naturalists place them in the insect order mallophaga, in im- mediate proximity to the anophira, which contains the human pediculi. BIRD LIME, a substance whitish and limy in appearance; used, as its name imports, for capturing birds. It is, in general, manufactured from the bark of the holly, though the berries of the mistletoe, and also the bark, boiled in water, beaten in a mortar, and then mashed, may also be employed for the purpose. BIRD OF PARADISE, the English des- ignation of a family of conirostral birds — the paradise'die. They are closely
