22 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PRIMEVAL WORLD. 



In external form it might generally be compared to 

 our modern bats and vampires. But most species had 

 the nose elongated like the snout of a crocodile, and 

 armed with conical teeth. Their eyes were of enormous 

 size, apparently to provide for their nocturnal wander- 

 ings. From their wings projected fingers, terminated 

 by long hooks, like the curved claw on the thumb of 

 the bat; the whole enabling them to creep, or climb, 

 or suspend themselves from the boughs of trees, with 

 admirable facility. 



It is probable also that these strange " anomalies " 

 possessed the power of swimming, with which so many 

 reptiles are endowed, and which is now an attribute of 

 the Vampire Bat (Pteropus pselaphon) of the Island of 

 Bonin. 



"Thus, like Milton's fiend, qualified for all services and 

 all elements, the creature was a fit companion for the 

 kindred reptiles that swarmed in the seas, or crawled on 

 the shores of a turbulent planet : 



' The Fiend, 



O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 

 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.' * 



With flocks of such-like creatures flying in the air, and 

 shoals of no less monstrous Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri 

 swarming in the ocean, and gigantic crocodiles and 

 tortoises crawling on the shores of the primeval lakes 

 and rivers, air, sea, and land must have been strangely 

 tenanted in these early periods of our infant world." 



From its teeth to the end of its claws, however, in 

 all its osteology, the creature, as Cuvier pointed out, 

 presents the features of the Saurians ; nor may it be 

 doubted that their characteristics existed in its integu- 

 ments and softer parts, in its scales, its circulation, its 

 generative organs. It was provided with the means of 

 flight, it is true, but when stationary could have made 

 but little use of its anterior extremities, even if it did 

 not keep them always folded as birds fold their wings. 

 It employed its small anterior fingers, as we have already 

 hinted, in suspending itself from the branches of trees, 

 but when at rest must generally have placed itself on 

 its hind feet, like the birds again ; and like them it 

 must have carried its neck half-erect and curved back- 

 wards, so that its enormous head should not disturb 

 its equilibrium. 



From the birds the Pterodactyle was separated by 

 the form of its pelvis, the narrowness of its sides, the 

 small number of its cervical vertebrae, and the long 

 rows of teeth which armed its jaw. From the bats it 

 was distinguished by the peculiar shape of its head 

 and teeth. 



It was, then, a lizard-like reptile, provided with bat- 

 like wings; the largest species not exceeding ten or 

 twelve inches in length, while the smaller were about 

 the size of the snipe. Its head was out of all propor- 

 tion to the rest of the body. The vertebra of the neck 

 were six or seven in number. The ribs were thin and 

 thread-shaped, like those of lizards. Its extremities 

 terminated in five fingers, the joints of the fifth being 

 lengthened so as to become expansions of the mem- 

 branous wing. 



* Milton, Paradise Lost, bk. ii. 1. 947. 



If we compare the foot of the Pterodactyle with that 

 of the bat, we perceive that the latter, like most other 

 mammals, has three joints in every toe, excepting the 

 first, which has only two. These two, however, in the 

 bat, are equal in length to the three bones of the other 

 toes, so that the five claws of its foot range in one straight 

 line, forming altogether the compound hook by which 

 the animal suspends itself in its dusky retreats, with its 

 head downwards, during its long periods of hybernation. 

 By this contrivance the burthen of its body is equally 

 divided between each of the ten toes. But owing to 

 the unequal length of the toes of the Pterodactyle, the 

 animal must have found it well nigh impossible to range 

 its claws uniformly in line, like those of the bat, and as 

 no single claw could have supported for any long time 

 the entire weight of the body, we are forced to the con- 

 clusion that thePterodactyles did notsuspend themselves 

 after the manner of the flying Mammalia. From the 

 size and form of the foot from the size and shape, too, 

 of the leg and thigh we conclude that they had the 

 power of standing firmly on the ground, where, with 

 their wings folded, they possibly moved along after the 

 manner of birds. They could also perch upon trees, 

 and climb up the steep face of perpendicular cliffs, with 

 their hind and fore feet conjointly, like bats and lizards. 



It is supposed by Cuvier that they fed on insects, 

 and that their habits were nocturnal. We know that 

 large insects existed at the same time, large fossil Libel- 

 lulcE, or Dragon-flies, and many other species, having 

 been found in the strata which have given up to our 

 examination the remains of these flying reptiles. Many 

 of the smaller existing lizards are insectivorous ; some 

 are also carnivorous, and others omnivorous; but, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Bucklaud, the head and teeth of two 

 species of Pterodactyle are so much larger and stronger 

 than is needful for the capture of insects, that we can 

 scarcely come to any other conclusion than that they 

 fed on fishes, darting upon them from the air, just as 

 the solan goose or the sea-swallow catches its prey. 

 The enormous size and strength of the head of the 

 Pterodactylus crassirostris would not only have ren- 

 dered it a formidable adversary to the piscine tribes, 

 but also to the few small marsupial mammalia which 

 flourished during the Liassic period. 



Thus, then, while all u the laws of existing organ- 

 ization in the order of lizards" were strictly followed 

 out and fulfilled in the Pterodactyles of the ancient 

 world ; still as lizards designed to move in the regions 

 of the atmosphere like birds and bats, they received, 

 in each part of their wonderfully constructed frame, a 

 complete adaptation to this novel condition. Here we 

 devoutly recognize the same foresight and care of a 

 common Creator, which we perceive also in the mar- 

 vellous mechanism of our own bodies, and in that of 

 the myriads of inferior creatures whose "lords and 

 masters" we style ourselves ; a sufficient proof that the 

 monstrous is nowhere an element of creation. 



To sum up: the Pterodactyle, as a recent writer 

 remarks, cannot fail to remind us of the dragon which 

 played so conspicuous a part in classical and mediaeval 

 poesy, and figures in so many of the old legends of 

 chivalry. It is an animal which might, indeed, respond 

 to this fabulous type ; but we see the dragon greatly 



