174 THE STORY OF REPTILE LIFE. 



colours of the rainbow, glistening with iri- 

 descence, as only the scales of a reptile can, he 

 used these charms, perchance, to overcome the 

 indifference of a much-exacting mate ; wheeling 

 and turning in the sunlight, in amorous flights, 

 till finally he conquered. 



During the time that these creatures lived 

 they appear to have spread themselves almost 

 over the whole world. Their remains occur in 

 abundance in the British Islands, in the Lias, 

 the Great Oolite, the Cambridge Greensand, and 

 the chalk of Kent, some of them measuring as 

 much as twenty feet across the expanded wings. 

 In Europe, beautifully preserved examples occur 

 in the Lithographic Stone of Bavaria, others in 

 the earlier Oolitic and Lias formation. They 

 do not appear to have reached America until the 

 Cretaceous period, where remains of some of the 

 very largest examples have been obtained from 

 the chalk of Kansas. That they occurred else- 

 where on the earth's surface, and both earlier 

 and later in time than present records show, 

 is highly probable, and proof of this may at 

 any time be produced. The preservation, as 

 well as the discovery, of the remains hitherto 

 unearthed is the result of a series of those 

 accidents by which the world has benefited; 

 although the list appears now to be practically 

 exhausted, we may live in hope that this will 

 not prove to be so. In any case, enough remains 

 to form one of the most striking and impressive 

 chapters in the history of the animal life of this 

 wonderful world of ours yet pieced together. 

 To the Story of Reptile Life, these creatures 



