It was at the place afterwards called Solenhofen. The weather was
miserable, as Jurassic weather usually was. The rain beat steadily
down, and carbon dioxide was still upon the earth.
The Archaeopteryx was feeling pretty gloomy, for at that morning’s
meeting of the Amalgamated Association of Enaliosaurians he had been
blackballed. He was looked down upon by the Pterodactyl and the
Ichthyosaurus deigned not to notice him. Cast out by the Reptilia, and
Aves not being thought of, he became a wanderer upon the face of the
earth. “Alas!” sighed the poor Archaeopteryx, “this world is no place
for me.” And he laid him down and died; and became imbedded in the rock.
And ages afterward a featherless biped, called man, dug him up, and
marvelled at him, crying, “Lo, the original Avis and fountain-head
of all our feathered flocks!” And they placed him with great
reverence in a case, and his name became a by-word in the land. But
the Archaeopteryx knew it not. And the descendant for whom he had
suffered and died strutted proudly about the barn-yard, crowing lustily
cock-a-doodle-do!