1 18 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



and although the probability is great that the class of birds was 

 represented by more than one genus at the period of the deposit 

 of the lithographic slate, and generic identity cannot be pre- 

 dicated from a solitary feather, I shall assume it in the present 

 instance, and retain for the genus, which can now be established 

 on adequate characters, the name originally proposed for it by 

 the distinguished German palaeontologist. 



" At the Meeting of the Mathematico-Physical Class of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences of Munich, on the 9th of November, 

 1861, Professor Andreas Wagner communicated the discovery, 

 in the lithographic slate of Solenhofen, of a considerable portion 

 of the skeleton of an animal, with impressions of feathers ra- 

 diating fanwise from each anterior limb, and diverging obliquely 

 in a single series from each side of a long tail. 



" These and other particulars of the fossil Professor Wagner 

 gave on the authority of M. Witte, Law-Councillor (Oberjustiz- 

 Rath) in Hanover, who had seen the fossil in the possession of 

 M. Haberlein, District Medical Officer (Landarzt) of Pappen- 

 heim. 



" Upon the report thus furnished to him. Professor Wagner 

 proposed for the remarkable fossil the generic name Griphosau- 

 rus, conceiving it to be a long-tailed Pterodactyle with feathers. 

 His state of health prevented his visiting Pappenheim for a per- 

 sonal inspection of the fossil ; and, unfortunately for palseonto- 

 logical science (which is indebted to him for many valuable 

 contributions), Professor Wagner shortly after expired. 



" I thereupon communicated with Dr. Haberlein, and reported 

 on the nature and desirability of the fossils in his possession to 

 the Trustees of the British Museum. They were accordingly 

 inspected by my colleague Mr. Waterhouse, F.Z.S. j and an in- 

 teresting and instructive selection, including the subject of the 

 present paper, has been purchased for the Museum." 



Archeopteryx, as is shown in the detailed examination of the 

 fossil which succeeds its history, "differs markedly from all 

 known birds in having two free unguiculate digits in the hand" 

 resembling in this respect a Pterodactyle. But its chief interest 

 centres in the excessive multiplication of the caudal vertebrae. 



" In Bats there are short-tailed and long-tailed species, as in 



