in RELATIONSHIP TO REPTILES 37 



arm were long and strong - , the hand had three fingers, 

 each bearing a large claw, and it and the ulna sup- 

 ported a number of large feathers, which seem well 

 suited for flight. The bill was short. The jaws were 

 furnished with teeth, the upper one with many, the 

 lower one with three on each side. 



Our first thoughts on looking at this creature might 

 well be, " It must be a feathered lizard." The long 

 tail and the teeth at once suggest this. But there are 

 many things which prove it to be a bird. ( I ) The three- 

 fingered hand. 1 True, the three metacarpals have 

 not become fused, and the second and third digits are 

 separate. Besides this, each of the fingers bears a 

 big claw. But in many existing birds a claw is found 

 on No. I, in a fair number on No. 2 as well, in the 

 young Ostrich on all three. The third digit has not 

 been reduced to a single phalanx. But this is no great 

 barrier. In birds of our own day the final phalanx 

 is often lost on digit I. (2) The length and strength 

 of the humerus and forearm remind one much of 

 existing birds. (3) The acetabulum or socket of the 

 thigh joint, seems to have been closed only with 

 membrane. (4) Scales, not feathers, are found on all 

 known lizards. 



There are some interesting points which, if rep- 

 tilian, are also avian. The vertebrae seem to have 



1 Dr. Hurst (Natural Science, October, 1893) has boldly tried 

 to show that archaeopteryx had really more than three fingers, 

 and that one or two with larger stronger bones have left no 

 impression on the stone. But when even the delicate forms of 

 the feathers are preserved, it is wonderful that there should be 

 no trace of these bones either in the Berlin Archaeopteryx, or in 

 the one at the British Museum. 



