PREFACE. Xlll 



It appears to form one of a series of animals 

 intermediate between the class mammalia and 

 class aves. In the scale of nature, its place ap- 

 pears to be between flying quadrupeds and 

 birds, Und certainly it has a more close resem- 

 blance to birds than the famed ornithorynchus,or 

 duck-billed quadruped of New Holland. The 

 skeleton represented in the plate is about 10 

 inches 4 lines long, and appears somewhat 

 compressed and distorted, owing to the con- 

 traction and pressure of the limestone in which 

 it is contained. Sommerring is of opinion that 

 it is a flying quadruped analogous to the bat ; 

 and of all the families of the genus, most nearly 

 allied to that named pteropus. It differs from 

 the pteropi, however, in having four toes in 

 place of five ; and in the circumstance of one 

 only of the toes of the fore feet being elon- 

 gated, whereas in the pteropi, four of the toes 

 are elongated, one only being short. 



The cranium is uncommonly small, the orbits 

 of enormous magnitude, and the jaws longer 

 than the body, and provided with sharp and 



