Prof. Huxley on Archseopteryx lithographica. 223 



of two small articular poocesses are distinctly visible at each end of 

 the vertebra. The superior surface of each articular process is raised 

 into a low longitudinal ridge ; and the posterior pair of processes lie 

 at the sides of a narrow, parallel-sided plate of bone, which projects 

 beyond the posterior edge of the vertebra, and is received between 

 the anterior articular processes of the vertebra which succeeds it. 

 A low linear longitudinal elevation occupies the place of spinous 

 process. 



If my interpretation of these appearances is correct, it is clear 

 that the caudal vertebrae (as was to be expected) turn their dorsal 

 faces to the eye. 



7. One important and extremely conspicuous bone, the furculum 

 (if it be such), undoubtedly turns its ventral surface to the eye; 

 and I cannot but suspect that it is the boiileversement of this bone 

 which has led to that reversal of the proper nomenclature of the 

 other bones which, could it be sustained, would leave Archceopteryx 

 without a parallel in the vertebrate subkingdom. 



When the specimen of Archaopteryx is once put into its right 

 position, many points of its structure acquire an intelligibility which 

 they lose to those who accept the interpretations given in the memoir. 

 The so-called right foot, for example, which, as a right foot, is like 

 nothing in nature, becomes strikingly ornithic as a left foot, from 

 the backward direction of the hallux and the apparent anchylosis of 

 the metatarsal bones. The distal ends of the second and third meta- 

 tarsals appear to me, however, to be separated for a much greater 

 distance, proportionately to the length of the metatarsus, than in any 

 existing birds, except the Penguins. 



The femur is more slender and more curved in proportion to its 

 length than in any recent bird with which I am acquainted. The 

 representation of the bone in fig. 1 of plate iii. is inaccurate, as 

 may be seen by comparing it with that given in plate i. 



The small size of the cnemial crest of the tibia is also very re- 

 markable. 



The right innominate bone is imperfectly represented in plate i. 

 of the memoir cited. Its anterior end is not, as it there appears to be, 

 abruptly truncated : there is an elevation in the region which would 

 be occupied by the prominence against which the base of the great 

 trochanter works, and which is so characteristic of birds. The greater 

 part of the ischium is not represented ; and the sacrosciatic space 

 certainly has not the form which it is represented to have. The 

 references o to the "obturator foramen," and 63, to the "ischium" 

 (I. c. p. 40), are unintelligible to me. 



The ischium can be traced back for | of an inch from the ace- 

 tabulum ; and so much of it as is preserved remains narrow through- 

 out this extent, and is convex upwards, but concave downwards or 

 towards the matrix. 



The ventral edge of the ischium appears to be entire throughout 

 this extent ; but the posterior moiety of its dorsal edge is somewhat 

 rough and angular. It is therefore very probable that the ischium 



16* 



