THE ANNALS 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[THIRD SERIES. ] 
No. 52. APRIL 1862. 
XXVIII.—On a new Fossil Reptile supposed to be furnished with 
Feathers. By A. Wacner*, 
“A BrRD is known by its feathers,” says the old proverb. The 
universal and exclusive applicability of this is recognized not 
only popularly, but also in zoology: an animal with feathers is 
a bird. This distinctive character, hitherto regarded as im- 
moveably fixed, has all at once been brought in question by one 
of the most unexpected discoveries. The facts are as follows :— 
In the course of the last summer I had the pleasure of re- 
ceiving a visit from M. Witte of Hanover, who is well known to 
possess an excellent collection of fossils, and to be well acquainted 
with them; and on this occasion he informed me that he had 
seen, in the possession of M. Hiaberlein, of Pappenheim, a slab 
from the lithographic stone of Solenhofen, upon which there was 
a skeleton with such a combination of characters that nothing 
more surprising and odd could be imagined. This specimen, 
indeed, wanted the skull and the two hands, but in other respects 
the most important parts of the skeleton were well preserved. 
The most remarkable thing about it was that a well-marked coat 
of feathers was present both on the anterior limbs and on the 
tail. These feathers agreed in their configuration so exactly 
with those of true birds, that their interpretation as such could 
hardly be doubted. The discovery of feathers in the lithographic 
slate was of itself something unprecedented, but the mode of 
their union with the skeleton bordered on the incredible. Thus 
the tail-feathers were attached to a tail possessing not the least 
resemblance to that of a bird, but presenting a deceptive simi- 
larity to that of a Rhamphorhynchus. And the attachment of 
the wings was still more astonishing; for these, on both the 
* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the ‘Sitzungsberichte der 
Miinchner Akad. der Wiss.’ 1861, p. 146. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist, Ser. 3, Vol. ix. 19 
