386 The Rev. W. D. Conybeare on the Discovert/ of 



Humero-slernal parts. — In one of the specimens of Saurian remains, pre- 

 sented by Colonel Birch to the Museum at Oxford, the humero-sternal, or 

 rather humero - clavicular , parts on one side of the animal are almost perfect. 

 It is only at the extremities of the clavicle and scapula that the bones them- 

 selves are preserved ; but the intermediate parts, though removed, have left an 

 impression of their lower surface. Enough remains to enable us with cer- 

 tainty to identify these bones with more perfect specimens of the same, which 

 have been found in a detached state. It is from these materials that I have 

 effected the restoration of the humero-clavicular parts represented in Plate 

 XLIX. fig. 2. 



The humero-clavicular parts ccmsist, as in birds, and as in the lizard and 

 some other reptiles, 1st, of coracoid bones separated from the scapula ; l^d, of 

 a small scapula; and 3d, of clavicles. 



The coracoid bones in the specimen at Oxford, are greatly elongated in 

 comparison of those represented in my first memoir, though resembling the 

 latter in every other particular. I hesitate to consider this difference as spe- 

 cific ; because the shorter coracoids evidently belonged to a much younger 

 individual than the longer, as appears from the circumstance of these and other 

 bones, which have become anchylosed in the latter case, remaining distinct 

 in the former. I ought, however, to add, that a third fragment of this part, 

 which certainly belonged to a large adult, and exhibits the anterior portion of 

 the two coracoids adhering to a series of anterior dorsal vertebrae, agrees in 

 form most nearly with the shorter specimen. The specimen belonging to the 

 Duke of Buckingham possessed the long coracoids, traces of them being very 

 evident beneath all the anterior ribs. Should it appear on further inquiry, that 

 there were two species, we learn from the specimens already procured, that the 

 specific distinctions were very slight, that noticed in the coracoids being in 

 fact the only one that I have been able to detect after a careful collation of 

 the most important parts in all the specimens that I have examined. 



The scapula has been correctly represented in my first memoir ; but the 

 humerus, which I had there figured from the only specimen in which I had 

 seen those two parts together, and which having belonged to the late Mr. Cat- 

 cott, is preserved in the public library at Bristol, in consequence of an acci- 

 dental dislocation, is exhibited in an inverted position. Tlie clavicles consist 

 of two transverse and one central piece. The former are the clavicles, strictly 

 speaking ; the latter may perhaps more properly be referred to the sternum. 

 The corresponding part or furcula in the ichthyosaurus also, consists of two 

 transverse and one central piece, as does tliat of the ornithorynchus, when 

 young, as has been noticed by Mr. Clift ; but the central piece in these animals 



