262 M. A. Wagner on a new Fossil Reptile 
anterior limbs, formed a fan radiating from the extremity of the 
fore-arm. 
“ Obstupui, steteruntque come !”” The statements made to 
me by my friend were so unexpected and so much at variance 
with previous views, that at first I did not know what to think 
of them. . Whether I regarded this mongrel creature as a bird 
with the tail of a reptile, or as a reptile with bird’s feathers, 
was no matter; the one was as incomprehensible to me as the 
other. Nevertheless this singular information came to me from 
a man whose judgment I could not but respect as that of one 
well acquainted with the subject. Nothing, therefore, remained 
for me but to suspend my judgment for the present, and leave 
it to time to furnish further elucidations of this matter. A 
long absence, however, prevented my further investigating the 
affair. 
The first contribution towards the completion of my knowledge 
of this extraordinary animal was furnished by H. von Meyer, in 
the lately published fifth part of the new ‘Jahrbuch fiir Minera- 
logie,’ &c. (1861, p. 561), where he reports as follows :—*A 
fossil from the lithographic slate of the quarries of Solenhofen 
has been sent to me, showing, with great distinctness, a feather — 
which cannot be distinguished from those of birds. In the 
organization of the Pterodactyles, which is now so accurately 
known, there is nothing from which we might infer that those 
animals were clothed with feathers; this, therefore, would be 
the earliest trace of a bird belonging to pre-tertiary time. The 
feather, which is of a blackish appearance, is about 60 mill, in 
length ; and the vane, which gaped somewhat here and there, 
almost uniformly 11 mill. in breadth. The fibres on one side of 
the shaft are only about half as long as those on the other. The 
quill, which was pretty strong, is also indicated. The vane ter- 
minates in a somewhat obtuse angle. The feather will represent 
either a wing- or tail-quill.” 
We have thus, from one of the best of our paleontologists, a 
full confirmation of the correctness of the interpretation given to 
these parts by M.O. J. Witte; for that this isolated feather be- 
longs to the same type with that seen by the latter is open to 
no doubt in my eyes, even from the statement of their deriva- 
tion and the first discovery of such structures in lithographic 
slate, and it will receive further confirmation immediately, inas- 
much as I have obtained from one of my friends, who is perfectly 
acquainted with his subject and was aware of the statements of 
the two paleontologists above mentioned, a report upon the 
same slab which M. O. J. Witte had the opportunity of seeing. 
Although he had not time to undertake a minute comparative 
examination of the slab, he was still able at least to acquire an 
