JillWS WITH TEETH. 55 



fanwise from each of the fore-limbs. But Prof. 

 Andreas Wagner, in a report to the Royal Academy 

 of Sciences in Munich, expressed the opinion that the 

 creature was not a bird, but a reptile, whose natural 

 covering presented a deceptive resemblance to feathers. 

 He called it the Griplwsaurus, which (considering he 

 had not seen the fossil remains) was very obliging on 

 his part. Von Meyer, however, regarded the im- 

 pressions as representing real feathers, belonging to 

 the same animal as the feather he had already dis- 

 covered. The fossil was secured for the British 

 Museum in 1862. It is contained in two slabs of 

 Solenhofen limestone ; one representing the surface of 

 tidal mud on which the bird lay at the time of its 

 death, the other the layer deposited over the dead 

 body. The lower slab shows the impressions of the 

 tail, wings, and parts of the skeleton. The right 

 shoulder-blade and upper arm (wing), as well as both 

 the forearms, are well preserved. The head, the neck, 

 and the backbone are wanting. Two of the digits of 

 the wing (wing-fingers we may call them) are free, 

 and armed with sharp claws or recurved spurs. The 

 right lower limb is well preserved, consisting of the 

 thigh-bone, the tibia or larger lower leg-bone, and the 

 tarso-inetatarsal bones, or bones of the upper foot 

 To the metatarsus, four toes are articulated, one hind- 

 toe and three fore-toes, which are jointed as 'with 

 birds, and armed with strong recurved claws. "The 

 foot," says Mr. Woodward, from whose description the 

 above has in the main been taken, " agrees well with 



