On Footprints of small Fossil Reptiles. 287 



The main jioints of difft-rence between tlie female of this 

 species and those of G. riifipcs^ of which I have a large 

 series, are tlie flesh-coloured legs, and the absence of black 

 vcrmiculations on the uj)per plumage and ujjper wing- 

 coverts. 



XLII. — Footprints of small Fossil Reptiles from, the Karroo 

 Rocks of Cape Colony. By H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. 



No record has hitherto been published of the footprints of 

 the animals which have left their remains so pleutitully in 

 the Karroo rocks. I examined a considerable area of the 

 Colony in the search for these evidences of the habits of the 

 animals without success; and neither Mr. Thomas Bain nor 

 Dr. Kannemeyer had ever met with any footprints in the 

 rocks. Suitable surfaces for their preservation are not un- 

 con)mon in large exposures of rip})le-marked shale which 

 occur on the Pareiasaurian horizon. 



One small slab is preserved in the palaeontological museum 

 of the University of Munich, where it has remained since 

 lb80. It is labelled " Middelburg/^ presumably the well- 

 known locality in the north-east of Cape Colony, and with it 

 is u smi'.U new Theriodont skull from the same locality 

 which, when the matrix is removed, may prove to be allied 

 to llrjorhynchus. 



^^ hen I drew the attention of the late Professor K. v. Zittel 

 to the interest of the specimen, he had a cast made and 

 placed in my hands for description. Tiiis cast has been 

 presented to the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Iload. 



The small block of tine sandstone, where it is broken at 

 the edge, shows the impressions of bones of small digits, 

 which terminate in sharp compressed claws, making an inter- 

 esting dilference from the absence of bones with foot[)rints in 

 the Trias of this country, which may lead to a future discovery 

 of definite association of footprints of South-African reptiles 

 with the bones of animals which made them, as the reward 

 of systematic exploration. 



The surface of the slab appears to be crossed by two or 

 three faint parallel marks an inch or two a]nirt, which are 

 probably ripple-marks, and the larger tbotprints tend to cross 

 tiiese obscure markings at an angle of about 45°. At least 

 three animals are indicated varying in size. The largest lias 

 the teet about the size of those of Procoloplion^ and shows a 

 similar stoutness and divergence of the digits, so that the 

 prints may be provisionally referred to that genus ; but the 



