122 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



monster? And do we not now know that there are hundreds of 

 them found fossil up and down the world? People call them 

 Pterodactyls ; but that is only because they are ashamed to call 

 them flying dragons, after denying so long that flying dragons 

 could exist." 



The illustrious Cuvier observes that it was not merely in 

 magnitude that reptiles stood pre-eminent in ancient days, but 

 they were distinguished by forms more varied and extraordinary 

 than any that are now known to exist on the face of the earth. 

 Among these extinct beings of ages incalculably remote, are the 

 Pterodactyls,^ or "wing-fingered" creatures, which had the power 

 of flight, not by a membrane stretched over elongated fingers as in 

 bats, nor by a wing without distinct or complete fingers, as in birds, 

 but by a membrane supported chiefly by a greatly extended little 

 finger, the other fingers being short and armed with claws. 



The only reptile now existing which has any power of sustain- 

 ing itself in the air is the little Draco Volans, or " flying lizard," 

 so called ; but this can scarcely be regarded as a flying animal. 

 Its hinder pair of ribs, however, are prolonged to such an extent 

 that they support a broad expansion of the skin, so spread out 

 from side to side as to perform the office of a parachute, thus 

 enabhng the creature to spring from tree to tree by means of 

 extended leaps ; and this it does with wonderful activity. 



Many forms of Pterodactyl are known. Some were not larger 

 than a sparrow ; others about the size of a woodcock ; yet others 

 much larger, the largest of all having a spread of wing (or rather 

 of the flying membranes) of twenty-five feet ! It has been con- 

 cluded that they could perch on trees, hang against perpendicular 

 surfaces, such as the edge of a cliff, stand firmly on the ground, 

 and probably crawl on all fours with wings folded. It may be 

 well at once to point out that the Pterodactyl had no true wings 

 like those of a bird, but a thin membrane similar to that of a bat, 

 only differently supported ; so it must be understood that, when 



' From the Greek — pteron, wing, and dactylos, finger. 



