Zoological Society. 878 



which description of evidence has, I am happy to say, heen more 

 fully developed and firmly established by the talented coadjutor of 

 Prof. Owen, Mr, Quekett of the Royal College of Surgeons, who has 

 publicly taught it in the Theatre of that Institution without question 

 or contradiction of its truth. This great radius and ulna in Mrs. 

 Smith's Collection I referred to my previously established species, P. 

 (figanteus, believing at that time that they were probably the bones 

 of a fully developed animal, while those previously described were 

 the remahis of animals not developed to the full extent of their capa- 

 bility. 



Since the publication of these specimens it has been my good for- 

 tune to obtain the snout of another and still larger species of Pte- 

 rodactyl, from the same pit at Burham in Kent, and which it is 

 probable will ultimately prove to belong to the species to which the 

 enormous pair of bones in the Cabinet of Mr. Charles of Maidstone 

 belongs. Should this hereafter prove to be the case, it w-ill then re- 

 main to be shown whether the beautiful specimen of radius and uhia 

 in the Collection of Mrs. Smith of Tunbridge Wells, and the bone 

 nearly corresponding in size with them, and which was in the possession 

 of the Earl of Enniskillen, belong to the newly discovered species, 

 which I purpose designating Pterodactylus Cuvieri, or to the pre- 

 viously named species, P. yiganteus ; or whether there be yet a third 

 species existing in the chalk, to which these bones of an intermediate 

 size may hereafter be referred *. 



The snout of the new species, P. Cuvieri, differs materially in its 

 form from the same part of P. yiganteus : while the latter agrees as 

 nearly as possible in that respect with P. crassirostris and P. brevi- 

 rostris, the former appears to approach very closely the proportions 

 of P. longirostris. Thus, if we take the length of the snout from the 

 distal end of the cavitas narium, as compared with its height, at the 

 same point of P. crassirostris, P. brevirostris and P. giganteus, we 

 find the relative proportions to be, — of the first-named, 29 of height 

 to 56 of length ; of the second, 28 of height to 50 of length ; and of 

 the third, 28 of height to 58 of length ; we may therefore reasonably 

 conclude that, when perfect, the head of P. giganteus very closely re- 

 sembled in its proportions that of crassirostris. The length of the 

 fragment of the snout of P. Cuvieri at the upper portion of the head 

 is 7 "20 inches ; at the palatal bones, 6 '38 inches ; and in this space 

 there are sockets for twelve teeth on each side. The distance between 

 each tooth is about 1^ of the long diameter of tlie sockets, which are 

 somewhat irregularly placed, but are nearly ctjuidistant from each 

 other. The pair of teeth at the distal end of tliL- snout appear, both 

 from the position of the sockets and the tooth remaining in situ, to 

 have been projected more or less forward, in a line with the palatal 

 bones. The head appears to have been exceedingly narrow tluough- 

 out the whole of its length. At the third pair of teeth from the distal 



* A third species, C. comprcufiirontrii!, lias since heen described l)y I'rof. Owen, 

 page 95, Part UT. of 'The I'ossil Ileptilia of the Cretaceous Formations,' pub- 

 lished by the Pala^ontograpliical Society, and to which species tlie i)ones in ques- 

 tion have been referred. 



