58 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



Although of considerable size, it probably had to seek its food, as 

 well as its safety, chiefly by artifice and concealment. The fish- 

 lizard, its contemporary, must have been a formidable rival and a 

 dangerous enemy, whom to attack would be unadvisable. 



Speaking of the habits of the long-necked sea-lizard, Mr. Cony- 

 beare, in his second paper, already alluded to, says, " That it 

 was aquatic, is evident from the form of its paddles ; that it was 

 marine, is almost equally so, from the remains with which it is uni- 

 versally associated ; that it may occasionally have visited the shore, 

 the resemblance of its extremities to those of the turtle may lead 

 us to conjecture; its motion, however, must have been very 

 awkward on land ; its long neck must have impeded its progress 

 through the water, presenting a striking contrast to the organisa- 

 tion which so admirably fits the Ichthyosaurus to cut through the 

 waves. 



" May it not therefore be concluded (since, in addition to these 

 circumstances, its respiration must have required frequent access 

 of air) that it swam upon or near the surface, arching back its 

 long neck like the swan, occasionally darting it down at the fish 

 which happened to float within its reach ? It may, perhaps, have 

 lurked in shoal water along the coast, concealed among the sea- 

 weed, and, raising its nostrils to a level with the surface from a 

 considerable depth, may have found a secure retreat from the 

 assaults of dangerous enemies ; while the length and flexibility of 

 its neck may have compensated for the want of strength in its 

 jaws and its incapacity for swift motion through the water, by the 

 suddenness and agility of the attack which they enabled it to 

 make on every animal fitted for its prey, which came within its 

 extensive sweep." 



More than twenty species of long-necked sea-lizards are known 

 to geologists. 



Professor Owen, in his great work on British Fossil Reptiles, 

 when describing the huge Plesiosaurus dolichodirus from Dorset, 

 suggests that the carcase of this monster, after it sank to the 



