Xil PREFACE. 



der Koniglichen Academic der Wissenschaften 

 zu Munchen, for 1811 and 181&, which has just 

 reached this country. 



The fossil animal there represented was 

 found many years ago in the limestone quarries 

 of Aechstedt, and described by the late Collini 

 in the 5th volume of the Actorum Academic 

 Theodoro-Palatinse. He considered it as an 

 extraordinary species of fish. Cuvier, from an 

 inspection of the plate of Collini, was of opi- 

 nion that it was an amphibious animal; Blu- 

 menbach was inclined to view it as a webb- 

 footed bird ; and now Sommerring has ascer- 

 tained, from an actual inspection of the speci- 

 men itself, that its characters are very different 

 from those of birds, amphibious animals, or 

 fishes, but agree with those of animals of the 

 class mammalia ; in this opinion coinciding with 

 that advanced by a sagacious and profound 

 naturalist, Hermann. It is named by Sommer- 

 ring ornithocephalus antiquus, from the resem- 

 blance of its head to that of a bird. 



