Archeopteryx macrura. 437. 
describe the bones of the head, but what one sees shows 
clearly that it is a true Reptile’s head. 
Behind the occiput, on the first cervical vertebra, a long 
spinal apophysis, directed backwards, seems to be visible. It 
perhaps bore a crest, like that of the Iguanas, traces of which, 
one thinks, may be perceived. 
T count, in an uncertain way, it is true, eight cylindrical 
cervical vertebree. They are furnished with ribs, very fine, 
but easily recognizable, and directed backwards. 
The neck, as a whole, must have been very movable. In 
this example it is bent in the form of a horse-shoe, the con- 
vexity formed by the ventral surface. Its length equals that 
of a Pigeon of the same size. 
The dorsal vertebre appear to be tenin number. ‘They are 
thick, short, as broad as high, and have no spinal apophyses. 
The ribs which are attached to them are very fine, thin, curved 
and pointed at the end, like surgeons’ needles, and show no 
flattening nor trace of uncinate processes, asin Birds. There 
are some very fine sternal ribs, which seem fixed to an abdo- 
minal linear sternum. 
The pelvis, most part of which is preserved in the London 
specimen, is in this still embedded. 
The tail is very long, and its whole length preserved. 
However, it only shows the vertebree of its anterior half com- 
pletely preserved. A fracture of the slab crosses the terminal 
feathers of the tail at the third of their length. 
Prof. Owen has very well proved that the pelvis, as well as 
the hind-lmb, entirely bear the stamp of the structure of a 
Bird by the reduction of the fibula, by the fusion of the 
tarsals and metatarsals into a single bone, and by the feet 
possessing four toes, of which one is placed behind. These 
parts are much better preserved in the London slab than in 
the present, in which some of the toes are wholly hidden. 
It would therefore add nothing to our knowledge of these 
parts, if it did not make quite certain that the fibula is 
wholly united to the tibia, and is only rendered perceptible 
by a slight longitudinal furrow. ‘This structure can be 
