386 Zoological Sociefj/. 



Leaving, however, tlie question of names, regarding which I have 

 no personal feehug except that they should indicate their objects 

 without ambiguity or obvious impropriety, I proceed to lay ])efore 

 the same Society to which Mr. Bowerbank has communicated his last 

 interesting and important discovery, similar evidence of a third spe- 

 cies of Pterodactyle from the chalk, intermediate in size between the 

 species of which the jaws were figured as the Pterodactylus gigantem 

 m 1845, and the truly gigantic species which he has namednR/iS^R 

 ^ftetylus Cuvieri. m'I? to 



3(1 ^he specimens, which consist of two portions of the upper jaw^ 

 iaa^m part of that gentleman's collection, and were in fact exhibited 

 on the table, but unnoticed, at our last meeting, their true nature not 

 iiaving b«cn recognised. The chief portion might well indeed be mis- 

 taken, at first sight, for a crushed portion of an ordinary long bone ; 

 and it was not until after a close comparison of several specimens of 

 these rare and interesting remains of Pterodactyles, kindly confided 

 to me by Mrs. Smith of Tonbridge Wells, Mr. Toulmin Smith of 

 Highgate, Mr. Charles of Maidstone, and b}^ Mr. Bowerbank him- 

 self, for description m my forthcoming ' Monograph on the Fossil 

 Eeptiles of the Chalk,' that I discovered them to be parts of a skull 

 pf.an undescribed species of Pterodactyle. 



,jj; Jn order to make this understood, it will be necessary to premise a 

 (i^iy words on the Pterodactyles in general, and on some of th^tchUr 

 i^Cters of the jaw of the Pterodactylus Cuvieri in particular. ([) nBdi 



r)7,The Order Pterosauria includes species of flying reptiles so mo^if 

 fied in regard to the structure and proportions of the skull, the de- 

 position of the teeth, and the development of the tail, as to be refer- 

 able even according to the partial knowledge we now possess of this 

 once extensive group, to different genera. . t 



^'^''M. \^on Meyer e. g^ primarily divides the Order i^^^^j^'*, * r r 



-rnoD"^' I^IAT^THRI, with a two-jointed wing-finger, 'jo 3 .'s ^hn^ 

 ,^||^jj]j,Ex. Pterodactylus {Ornithopterus^ Lavateri. ,, f)f|ji bgaasiq 

 T97/()|Bi TETRABTPIRI, with a four-jointed wing-fing€*;'J<^o «« oi, 

 >Bf[/Mu Ex. All the other known species of the order. « '^^^l>^ ^AiifR{ 

 ojir , ... [o!ov'>b oilt h\ %mmiom ylbiqjsT 



j^^jfjhese again are subdivided into — ,rr,r ,. ,^.f<.!^ .,; >. Fui '•.. fvrrj « 



hnl.jBientirostres. Jaws armed with teeth to their ends; a bony 

 ?,'rvV. sclerotic ring; scapula and coracoid not confluent with one ari^- 

 c. other * ; a short moveable tail. f'f"3=' hVm-N 



8i?Ex. Pterodactylus ^xo^ev. -^''rasq? 



^^ 2. Subulirostres, Jaws with their ends produced into an g^l^^lt 



t'*'"*^ !6us point, probably sheathed with bone; no bony sclerbtifc^; 



^ ^'^s<*apula and coracoid confluent ; a long and stiff tail. 1' 1! 



Ex. Pterodactylus {Ramphorhynchui) Gemmimifl '^^* ^^ *?jt»^ 

 lo 7 >t(i' >'•■'• ■ i. • "^ ; ^ ^ ^ ^ T. rr')niinoq« BrJ i 



* The condition of the «capular arch in the Pt. giganteusy Bow., PU conitostria 

 luihi, demonstrates the fallacy of this character. j 1 . i j 



t Palaeontographia, Heft l", 4to. 1846, p. 19. M ,8 ,t (fcJ 



