25 



remains of a large species of Pterodactylus. The bones consist of — 



'* 1 . The fore part of the head as far as about the middle of the 

 cavitas narium, with a corresponding portion of the under jaws, 

 many of the teeth remaining in their sockets. 



"2. A fragment of the bone of the same animal, apparently a part 

 of the coracoid. 



" 3. A portion of what appears to be one of the bones of the auri- 

 ciUar digit, from a chalk-pit at Hailing. 



"4. A portion of a similar bone, from the same locality as No. 1. 



" 5. The head of a long bone, probably the tibia, belonging to the 

 same animal as the head. No. 1 . 



"6. A more perfect bone of the same description, not from the 

 same animal, but found at Hailing." 



In a subsequent communication, dated December 1 845, Mr. Bower- 

 bank states with regard to the specimens Nos. 5 and 6, which he 

 supposed to be parts of a tibia, that " on a more careful comparison 

 with the figures of Pterodactylus by Goldfuss, I am inclined to be- 

 lieve they are more likely to be portions of the ulna." 



With respect to the long bone. No. 6 in the above list, comparing 

 it with that figured in the Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. vi. pi. 39. 

 fig. 1, and referred by me to Cimoliornis diomedeus, Mr. Bowerbank 

 writes : — 



"Although the two specimens differ greatly in size, there is so 

 strong a resemblance between them in the form and regularity of the 

 shaft, and in the comparative substance of the bony structure, as to 

 render it exceedingly probable that they belong to the same class of 

 animals ;" and he concludes by remarking, that " If the part of the 

 head in my possession (see fig. 1) be supposed similar in its propor- 

 tions to that of Pterodactylus crassirostris, — and there appears but 

 little difference in that respect, — it would indicate an animal of com- 

 paratively enormous size. The length of the head, from the tip of 

 the nose to the basal extremity of the skidl, of Pt. crassirostris is 

 about 4f inches, while my specimen would be, as nearly as can be 

 estimated, 9^ inches. According to the restoration of the animal by 

 Goldfuss, Pt. crassirostris would measure as nearly as possible three 

 feet from tip to tip of the wings, and it is probable that the species 

 now described would measure at least six feet from one extremity of 

 the expanded wings to the other ; but if it should hereafter prove 

 that the bone described and figured by Prof. Owen belongs to a Pte- 

 rodactyle, the probable expansion of the wings would reach to at least 

 eight or nine feet. Under these circumstances I propose that the spe- 

 cies described above shall be designated Pterodactylus giganteus." 

 (Quarterly Geol. Journ. vol. ii. p. 8.) 



In a subsequent memoir, read June 9, 1847, and published in the 

 ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' vol. iv. February 1848, 

 Mr. Bowerbank gives figures of the ' bone-cells ' from the jaw of a 



Upper Chalk," in the 'Annals of Natural History,' vol. xx. p. 295, affirms that no 

 upper chalk exists in the localities whence the above-defined specimens came. 

 They are from the " Middle Chalk." 



