INTRODUCTION. XV 
with the exception of the great Omosaurius, due to the 
generosity of the Directors of the Swindon Brick and 
Tile Company,* the British Museum owes all its finer 
Reptilian fossils from the Kimeridge Clay of more southern 
areas to the researches and liberality of Mr. J. C. Mansel- 
Pleydell, F.G.S., who has also presented a Pliosaurian 
paddle to the Dorchester Museum. ‘The late Dr. Henry 
Porter, of Peterborough, obtained various Teleosaurian, 
Ichthyosaurian, and Plesiosaurian fossils from the Oxford 
Clay of that neighbourhood, now for the most part in the 
Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge; and the unrivalled 
collection of Mr. Alfred N. Leeds, made in the same 
locality, comprises not only Dinosauria and numerous 
nearly complete skeletons of Teleosauria, Ichthyosauria, 
and Plesiosauria, but also many fish-remains. 
The Purbeck Vertebrata of Swanage seem to have 
been first systematically collected by the late Messrs. 
W. R. Brodie and C. Wilcox, and the formation is well 
represented in the Museums of London, Cambridge, and 
Dorchester. The most extensive series of Mammalian 
fossils and the remains of dwarf Crocodiles, now in the 
British Museum, were discovered by Mr. S. H. Beckles, 
F.R.S.; and, as the result of systematic purchases, the 
late Earl of Enniskillen and Sir Philip Egerton accu- 
mulated the unique collection of Fossil Fishes from the 
same horizon, now also in the British Museum. Fossil 
Fishes likewise occur in the Purbeck Beds of the Vale of 
Wardour, Wiltshire, and were collected many years ago 
by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S., and more recently by the 
Rev. W. R. Andrews, F.G.S., of Teffont, in whose private 
collections the majority are still preserved. 
The Vertebrata of the Wealden were first collected in 
the classic neighbourhoods of Cuckfield and Hastings, in 
* W. Davies, ‘On the Exhumation and Development of a large 
Reptile (Ososaurus armatus, Owen), from the Kimeridge Clay, 
Swindon, Wilts,’ Geo/. Jag. [2] vol. ili, 1876, p. 193, pls. vil, vill. 
