126 



EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



horn, and the skull in several ways approaches that of a bird. 

 Since there are no teeth in the jaws, we may suppose that it 

 devoured dragon-flies or other insects, such as we know were in 

 existence during the period when the lithographic stone of 

 Bavaria was being deposited. Those forms that were provided 

 with teeth probably devoured such fishes as they could catch by 

 swooping down upon the surface of the water. 



Cuvier thought, from the magnitude of their eyes, that Ptero- 

 dactyls were of nocturnal habits. " With flocks of such creatures 



FIG. 34. Skeleton of Pterodactylus spectabilis. 



flying in the air, and shoals of no less monstrous Ichthyosauri 

 and Plesiosauri swarming in the ocean, and gigantic crocodiles and 

 tortoises crawling on the shores of the primaeval lakes and rivers 

 air, sea, and land must have been strangely tenanted in these 

 early periods of our infant world." x 



1 Buckland, Bridgnvater Treatise. 



