G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 199 



of self-protection) squirts out from one of its eyes a jet of 

 bright red liquid very much like blood. This he observed 

 three times in as many different individuals, although others 

 did not present any peculiarity. They generally use this 

 means of defense when first captured, the liquid being squirt- 

 ed a distance of six inches in one instance. This statement, if 

 it be really a fact, has, as far as we know, no confirmation by 

 any corresponding observation on the part of any of our 

 American naturalists, and we commend the consideration 

 of it to such as reside where this animal can be obtained. 

 The species is not indicated, but the observations were made 

 in the vicinity of Stockton, California. 11 A, January 3, 

 1871,1. 



SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF PTERODACTYLS. 



The precise position of the pterodactyls, or the so-called 

 fossil or flying dragons, has been a subject of much discus- 

 sion among palaeontologists, some referring them to the rep- 

 tiles, and others to the birds, while others, again, have consid- 

 ered them as belonging to a distinct type of creation inter- 

 mediate between the two. Professor Seeley, of Cambridge, 

 who has recently given the subject a very critical examina- 

 tion, sums up the evidence by saying that the pterodactyls 

 had a nervous system of the bird type; they had a kind of 

 brain which exists only in association with a four-celled heart 

 and hot blood, which it would necessarily produce ; and with 

 that respiratory organization is always associated a brain of 

 the type that the pterodactyl is found to possess. Therefore 

 he concludes that the general plan of the most important of 

 the soft structures was similar to that of living birds. He 

 finds, however, that these characteristics are associated with 

 such a diversity of other details as to vindicate the propriety 

 of placing them in a new group, of equal value with birds, 

 and called Ornithosauria. 5 A, July, 1870, 293. 



WEIGHT OF ALLIGATORS. 



We announced some time ago the desire of Professor Phil- 

 lips, of Oxford, to obtain the ratio of the weight to the length 

 of living alligators and crocodiles, as stated in Land and 

 Water. This journal has since presented several responses to 

 the query, and from one of them we learn that a North Amer- 



