330 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



which constituted for the animal a wing, much more powerful 

 than that of the dragon ; and, at least, equal in force to that 

 of the bat. The animal could fly as long as the vigour of its 

 muscles permitted, and would then use its three short toes, 

 armed with hooked claws, to suspend itself to trees. 



It is unnecessary to pursue this investigation farther. We 

 find an animal which, in its osteology from the teeth to the 

 end of the claws, presents us with all the classic characters of 

 the saurians. We cannot doubt, therefore, that it had the same 

 characters in its teguments and soft parts ; that it had their 

 scales, circulation, organs of generation, &c. But, at the 

 same time, it was an animal provided with the means of flying, 

 and one which, in a stationary position, would make but little 

 use of its anterior extremities, if, indeed, it did not keep them 

 folded up as birds do their wings. It could yet employ its little 

 fore-toes to suspend itself to the branches of trees, but its tran- 

 quil position would be ordinarily on its hind feet like birds. 

 Like them, too, it would keep its neck straightened and curved 

 back, to prevent its enormous head from destroying its 

 equilibrium. 



After these data, the figure of this animal, as it was when 

 living, might be drawn. But it would be one of the most ex- 

 traordinary kind, and to those who had never examined into 

 the subject, would appear to be a monster, the product of a 

 distempered imagination, rather than, by any possibility, the 

 work of nature. Something approaching to it, or analogous, 

 has been seen in the fantastic paintings of the Chinese. There 

 is an engraving in the German Journal, entitled Naturforscher, 

 taken from a Chinese book of ^* Natural History," and which 

 represents a bat, with the beak of a hawk, and the long tail 

 of a pheasant ; but this would be no representation of the 

 animal of which we have been treating. 



The second species is called by M. Cuvier, Pterodadylus 

 brevirostris, from having a shorter muzzle than the last. This, 

 too, was discovered in the same strata as the last. The stone 



