465 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The English Pterodactyles. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gextlejien, — In February 18G5 a paper of mine was printed in the 

 * Annals ' " On the Literature of English Pterodactyles," written 

 chiefly as a note to Prof. Buckland's account of the Dimorphodon. 

 Since then, additional materials have come under my notice, and I 

 wish here to modify, in accordance with our newer knowledge, some 

 of the conclusions then arrived at. 



Dr. Buckland's figure is pi. 27, Geol. Trans, ser. 2. vol. iii. 



The vertebrae at K, which Dr. Buckland had supposed to be the 

 tail, I then showed reason for regarding either as cervical or sacral. 

 They prove to be sacral, and show a remarkable character (probably 

 ordinal) in being unanchylosed. 



The vertebrae which appeared, in the drawings that my notes 

 were written from, to have the centrum convex in front, have the 

 neural arch crushed, so that zygapophyses which seem to look down 

 really look inward. The Dimorphodon, like most other Pterodac- 

 tyles, has the vertebrae of the trunk procoelian, as Prof. Owen long 

 since stated. 



The bone figured in the Palaeontographical Society's Monograph 

 for 1851, pi. 30, in the collection of the late Mr. Toulmin Smith, 

 has lost its proximal epiphysis. It is the first phalange. 



The bone which Prof Owen, in his Monograph of 1859 (pi. 4. 

 f. 6-8), regarded with doubt as a frontal, and which in 1865 ap- 

 peared to be the vomer, is almost certainly part of the sacrum. 



The skulls and casts of the brain-cavity since found more than 

 justify all that was urged, in the ' Annals ' of May 1866, in favour 

 of the claim of Pterodactyles to take rank altogether above reptiles, 

 and as a parallel group with birds. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. Harry Seeley, 



Impregnation of the Balani. 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — Eeading a short time since in Dr. Fritz Miiller's 

 'Fiir Darwin' that he had strong reasons to believe that the 

 gregarious Balani were not only hermaphrodite, but also impreg- 

 nated one another (he came to this conclusion from having observed 

 specimens that, from their colour and general appearance, were hy- 

 brid between two species), recalled to my recollection that some 

 few years since Mr. R. Bishop, of this town, informed me that he 

 had actually seen this impregnation take place. At the time I 

 asked him to write me an account of it, which I sent to Mr. l)an^•in. 

 I have now asked him to recommit his observations to paper, which 

 I send to you for the benefit of the readers of your journal, and 

 which I think sets the doubt at rest. 



8 Mulgravc Place. Plymouth, I '-^^^ Gentlemen, youre faitllfully, 

 May U), 1869. C. Spence B.vxe. 



Ann. (S) Mag. N. Hint. Ser. 4. Vol. iii. 35 



