THE GREATEST FLYING CREATURE. 



By S. 1*. Langley. 

 Introducing a paper by /•'. A. I/ucux. i 



A question of interest to all who are attracted to the subject of aerial 

 navigation by flying machines (or things heavier than the air, and which, 

 therefore, do not float like a balloon, but are dependent entirely on 

 some mechanical power for their support) is, "What has nature her 

 self done in the way of large flying machines, and arc the birds which 

 we see now the limit of her ability to construct them ?" 



In former epochs of our planet's history there were larger flying 

 creatures than now. notably the Pterodactyl, "a brother to dragons," 

 a reptile rather than a bird, but a reptile with enormously great wings. 

 We do not know just how great this was in the living, creature, except 

 conjecturally, for we have only the skeleton. To take the expanse of 

 the wing skeleton of a bird as giving us the expanse of wing of the 

 actual bird would be to greatly underestimate it. the stretch of the 

 skeleton being much less. The skeleton (which is all we have left of 

 the Pterodactyl, a featherless reptile, and in that important respect 

 different from a bird) will be more nearly in expanse that of the 

 living creature. 



We have here in the illustration (PI. I) a larger than ordinary speci- 

 men of Ornithostoma, a Pterodactyl whose skeleton indicates a spread 

 of wing of about twenty feet. 



It is compared with that of the condor, nearly the largest bird now 

 on the planet. 



For my immediate purpose I will recall to tin 1 reader that birds are 

 divisible into two classes: (1) those who soar with little motion of 

 their wings, and yet in some mysterious manner keep their generally 

 weighty bodies afloat on the yielding air, and (2) those who flap their 

 wings. 



Ornithostoma belongs almost unquestionably to the first of these 

 classes. Its weight is not to be exactly estimated, but from a variety 

 of considerations, part of which are quoted by Mr. Lucas in the ensu- 

 ing paper, it is possible that the average specimen of Ornithostoma. 

 in spite of its great wing space, did not weigh over thirty pounds. 



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