Zoological Society. 283 



4. The salivary glands of the Chameleon, if not formed on exactly 

 the same type as those of the Anteaters, are at least similar in the 

 office they perform. 



5. The abnormal number of cervical vertebrae in the Ai approxi- 

 mates the Edentata equally to Reptiles and Birds. 



6. The Monotremata, which Professor Owen in the passage I have 

 quoted seems to look upon as the terminal link between the Edentata 

 and Birds, are certainly more nearly allied to Reptiles than to Birds, 

 and have indeed been considered so by himself, as will be manifest 

 from the following extract from a letter of that gentleman quoted in 

 Kirby's Bridge water Treatise, vol. ii. p. 432 : — " Dissections of most 

 of the genera of Marsupians have tended to confirm in my mind the 

 propriety of establishing them as a distinct and parallel group, be- 

 ginning with the Monotremes, which I believe to lead from Reptiles, 

 not Birds." Again, in his paper ' On the Young of the Ornitho- 

 rhynchus paradoxus,' Zool. Trans, vol. i. p. 221, he very distinctly 

 states the weight of evidence to be in favour of the relation of the 

 Monotremates to the Reptiles rather than Birds ; so that in all pro- 

 bability he has altered his views on this subject since 1830. 



The evidence produced above is conclusive for my purpose, and 

 precludes the necessity of discussing the analogies of the Monotre- 

 mata. But as Prof. Owen has alluded to the beak of the Ornitho- 

 rhynchus as that " of a bird," it may not be irrelevant to show in how 

 many important particulars the two structures differ. " This struc- 

 ture," says Sir Everard Home, speaking of the organ in question, 

 "differs materially from the bill of a Duck, and indeed from the bill 

 of all birds, since in them the cavities of the nostrils do not extend 

 beyond the root of the bill ; and in their lower portions, which cor- 

 respond to the under jaw of quadrupeds, the edges are hard, to 

 answer the purpose of teeth, and the middle space is hollow, to re- 

 ceive the tongue" (Home on Head of Ornithorhynchus, Phil. Trans. 

 1800). When to this diversity of structure we add the difference 

 of use, we shall see that however strong may be the resemblance at 

 first sight, it is perhaps more imaginary than real. From the de- 

 scription above-quoted.we learn that the beak of the Ornithorhynchus 

 is incapable, from the general flexibility of its structure, of taking 

 firm hold of any object ; but that the marginal lips being brought 

 together, the prey is sucked into the mouth. 



Perhaps too the similarity of the spines of the Echidna to the 

 quills of a bird is not very close. 



7. The pelvis of some Edentata certainly resembles that of Birds 

 in a remarkable degree. 



I have thus endeavoured to show that many of the structures in 

 the Edentata, adduced by Prof. Owen as offering relations to Birds, 

 are equally so to Reptiles ; whilst those that lead us to the former 

 class are not of equal number or importance to those that conduct us 

 to the latter. 



I am fully aware that the scope and conduct of my investigations 

 have been defective ; but so far as they extend they appear to me to 



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