446 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Dec, 



finger, especially since that digit (or digits) must have been larger 

 and stronger than any of the three now exposed. 



A very serious objection, to my mind, against the probability of 

 Dr. Hurst's theory is the obvious fact that the manus of Archaeopteryx 

 must have been highly specialised in two directions to fit it for two 

 distinct modes of locomotion — flight and climbing — modifications, too, 

 which must have gone on hand in hand, a possibility which I can 



Fig. 6. — Reconstruction of Archaopteryx, from Koken, " Die Vorwelt " ; by kind 

 permission of the publishers. 



hardly imagine. That the free fingers have become specialised, either 

 for the purposes of climbing or those of flight, there can be no doubt, 

 since no one would regard these digits as representing even a part of 

 the unspecialised primitive manus adapted for ordinary walking or 

 climbing purposes. In conclusion, I perfectly agree with Dr. Hurst 

 when he says: " If Natural Selection has been operating long enough 



