380 Zoological Society. 



Leaving, however, the question of names, regarding which I have 

 no personal feehng except that they should indicate their ohjects 

 without amhiguity or obvious impropi-iety, I proceed to lay ])ef()n 

 the same Society to which Mr. Bowerbank has communicated his la- 

 interesting and important discovery, similar evidence of a third spc 

 cies of Pterodactyle from the chalk, interjiiediate in size between tlu.' 

 species of which the jaws were figured as the Pterodactylus giyanteus 

 in 1845, and the truly gigaij^ic species which he has named Ptero- 

 dactylus Cuvieri. 



The specimens, which consist of two portions of the upper jaw, 

 form part of that gentleman's collection, and were in fact exhibited 

 on the table, but unnoticed, at our last meeting, their true nature not 

 having been recognised. The chief portion might well indeed be mis^- 

 taken, at first sight, for a crushed portion of an ordinary long bone ; 

 and it was not until after a close comparison of several specimens of 

 these rare and interesting remains of Pterodactyles, kindly confided 

 to me by Mrs. Smith of Tonbridge Wells, Mr. Toulmin Smith of 

 Highgate, Mr. Charles of Maidstone, and by Mr. Bowerbank him- 

 self, for description in my forthcoming ' Monograph on the Fossil 

 Re])tiles of the Chalk,' that I discovered them to be parts of a skull 

 of an undescribed species of Pterodactyle. 



In order to make this iinderstood, it will be necessary to premise a 

 few words on the Pterodactyles in general, and on some of the cha- 

 racters of the jaw of the Pterodactylns Cuvieri in particular. 



The Order Pterosauria includes species of flying reptiles so modi- 

 fied in regard to the structure and proportions of the skull, the dis- 

 position of the teeth, and the development of the tail, as to be refer- 

 able even according to the partial knowledge we now possess of this 

 once extensive gi'oup, to different genera. 



M. Von Meyer e. g. primarily divides the Order into — 



A. BIAUTHRI, with a two-jointed wing-finger. 

 Ex. Pterodactylus {Ornithojiterus) Lavateri. 



B. TETRARTHRI, with a four-jointed wing-finger. 

 Ex. All the other known species of the order. 



These again are subdivided into — 



1 . Dentirostres. Jaws armed with teeth to their ends ; a bony 

 sclerotic ring ; scapula and coracoid not confluent with one an- 

 other * ; a short moveable tail. 



Ex. Pterodactylus proper. 



2. Subulirostres. Jaws with their ends produced into an edentu- 

 lous point, probably sheathed with bone ; no bony sclerotic ; 

 scapula and coracoid confluent ; a long and stiff tail. 



Ex. Pterodactylus {Ramphorhynchus) Gemmingi\. 



* The condition of the scapular arch in the Pt. giganteus, Bow., Pt, conirostris 

 mihi, demonstrates the fallacy of this character, 

 t Palseontographia, Heft 1, 4to. 184G, p. 19. 



