172 FLYING SAURIANS. 



presence of characters apparently belonging to each of the 

 three classes to which it was referred. The form of its 

 head, and length of neck, resembling that of birds, its wings 

 approaching to the proportion and form of those of bats, and 

 the body and tail approximating to those of ordinary Mam- 

 malia. These characters, connected with a small skull, as 

 is usual among reptiles, and a beak furnished with not less 

 than sixty pointed teeth, presented a combination of apparent 

 anomalies which it was reserved for the genius of Cuvier to 

 reconcile. In his hands, this apparently monstrous produc- 

 tion of the ancient world, has been converted into one of the 

 most beautiful examples yet afforded by comparative anato- 

 my, of the harmony that pervades all nature, in the adapta- 

 tion of the same parts of the animal frame, to infinitely va- 

 ried conditions of existence. 



In the case of the Pterodactyle we have an extinct genus 

 of the Order Saurians, in the class of Reptiles, (a class that 

 now moves only on the land or in the water,) adapted by a 

 pecuharity of structure to fly in the air. It will be interest- 

 ing to see how the anterior extremity, which in the fore-leg 

 of the modern Lizard and Crocodiles is an organ of locomo- 

 tion on land, became converted into a membraniferous wing; 

 and how far the other parts of the body are modified so as 

 to fit the entire animal machine for the functions of flight. 

 The details of this inquiry will afTord such striking examples 

 of numerical agreement in the component bones of every 

 limb, with those in the corresponding limbs of living Lizards, 

 and are at the same time so illustrative of contrivances for 

 the adjustment of the same organ to effect different ends, 

 that I shall select for examination a few points, from the 

 long and beautiful analysis w^hich Cuvier has given of the 

 structure of this animal. 



The Pterodactyles are ranked by Cuvier among the 

 most extraordinary of all the extinct animals that have 

 come under his consideration; and such as, if we saw 

 them restored to life, would appear most strange, and most 



