Reports and Proceedings. 343 



blances to birds would be found in the Pterodactylia, which, like the 

 class Aves, were equally well adapted for aerial locomotion. In his 

 recently published monograph on the Pterodactyles of the Lias, 

 Prof. Owen holds that they are Saurians. So that the weight of 

 authority is at present in favour of retaining them in the class 

 Eeptilia. This our author contends is an error. 



The Osteological portion, where each bone is separately and fully 

 described and compared with its analogue in mammal, bird, and 

 reptile, is too technical to do more than refer to, as a valuable con- 

 tribution to the anatomy of these creatures. 



Whether they were hot or cold-blooded, is still a moot question. 

 The former view Mr. Seeley emphatically maintains, founding his 

 opinion chiefly on the form of the brain, as evidenced by its case, 

 " which proves the Pterodactyle to have had a brain undistinguish- 

 able from that of a bird ;" whilst Prof. Owen as emphatically main- 

 tains, from other characters, that it was cold-blooded. 



In the author's " summing up," various systems of classification 

 of the extinct Eeptilia are reviewed, and considered as unsatisfactory 

 by Mr. Seeley, in the absence of any knowledge of the brain in some 

 of the orders ; and he thinks that the " Eeptilia of the Palaeon- 

 tologist is a vast and provisional group, ever acquiring new characters, 

 to which no diagnosis can be applied." 



Eemains of twenty-five species of Ornithocheirus (Seeley) are pre- 

 served in the Museum. Twenty of these are new and now first 

 described. Some attained a large size, having had an expanse ot 

 wing of about 20 feet ; and the smallest not less than a fourth as 

 large. The head of one is 15 inches and the neck 9 inches, respec- 

 tively, in length. 



The text is illustrated by twelve lithographic plates, containing 

 nearly 200 figures of the bones described, but the printing is too 

 black, and the drawing betrays the hand of an amateur in need of a 

 master's direction. 



The book itself is worthy of perusal and careful study, whether 

 we coincide with or dissent from the deductions of the author ; and 

 the thanks of palaeontologists are due to Prof. Sedgwick, at whose 

 expense it has been prepared, the cost of the printing only having 

 been defrayed out of the funds of the Syndics of the University 

 Press. 



laSIPOI^TS JLlsTID I3K,OOEEIZDI35ra-S. 



Geological Society of London. — May 25th, 1870. — Joseph 

 Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the chair. The following 

 communications were read : — 



1. "Contributions to a Knowledge of the Newer Tertiaries of 

 Suffolk and their Fauna." By E. Eay Lankester, Esq., B.A. Com- 

 municated by Prof. Huxley. 



1. The Suffolk Bone-hed and the Norfolk Stone-led. — The author 

 pointed out that the recognition of the distinction of these two 

 deposits from the overlying shelly Crags was an important step in 



