Archeeopteryx macrura. 443 
one on the side of the radius, the other on that of the ulna. 
Some of the Ratites with rudimentary wings, such as the 
Cassowary and Apteryx, have only a single carpal; and, as 
that character is combined with the rudimentary or nullified 
clavicles, we find in it some resemblance to Archeopteryex. 
I do not know whether the single carpal occurs in the Dino- 
saurs, for Compsognathus, the only one of them whose entire 
skeleton has been left to us, seems to have had the carpus in 
a cartilaginous state. 
Prof. Owen assigns four digits to the manus. According 
to him, some scattered bones indicate that, besides those 
which bore the remiges, there were two slender digits, mo- 
derately long, and armed with curved, flattened, and sharp 
claws. 
Relying on these facts (which are partly supposed, for he 
did not find the bones which bore the remiges), Prof. Owen 
discusses the difference between the manus of Birds, Ptero- 
saurs, and the Archeopteryx ; and, having proved that the 
latter had no extraordinarily elongated digit, as in the Ptero- 
dactyls, he continues :—‘ But besides the negative evidence, 
the positive proof of the ornithic proportions of the hand or 
pinion, of the existence of quill-feathers, and the manifest 
attachment of the principal ones, or ‘ primaries,’ to the carpal 
and metacarpal parts of a short terminal segment of the 
limb, sufficiently evince the true class-affinity of the <Ar- 
cheopteryx*.” 
Prof. Owen only knew, as we have just said, some scat- 
tered small bones of the manus. Prepossessed by the resem- 
blances which connect the fossil with Birds, he readily sup- 
posed that the missing bones were constructed as in them. 
However, when our specimen shows all the bones of the fore 
limbs in their normal relative positions, equally to one another 
as to the feathers, we can affirm that the manus of Arche- 
opteryx can neither be compared to that of a Bird nor of a 
Pterosaur, but only to that of a tridactyl Lizard. 
In fact our specimen has on each manus three long slender 
digits, armed with claws, hooked and sharp-edged. The 
* [See former note.—TRANSL. ] 
