Ichthyornis dispar

[dbensen <dbensen@gotnet.net>]

I'm doing a reconstruction of Ichthyornis dispar in the usual way (looking at
skeletal reconstructions and fleshing them out) and I've encountered something
odd.  Ichthyornis's head is _huge_!  In the reconstrcution I'm looking at (in 
The
Rise of Birds by Sankar Chatterjee) the cranium is about the same size as the 
rib
cage.  The cranium and beak are about the same length as the torso.  Even with
light, avian, engineering, the head looks like it would overbalance the body 
when
in flight.  What's going on here?  Is the reconstruction incorrect?  Is the
largness of the head an illusion because I'm used to looking at birds in
feathers?

Thanks

Dan