Prof. BucKLAND on the Pterodactj/his Macronyx. 219 



longest ; and in the second and third fingers the antepenultimal is the 

 shortest. This is precisely the arrangement pointed out by Cuvier in the 

 Pterodactylus longirostris. These three fingers, terminating- in claws so long- 

 that I have chosen them to characterize the species by the name macronyx, 

 must have formed a powerful paw, wherewith the animal was enabled to 

 creep, or climb, or suspend itself from trees : — thus, like Milton's fiend, all- 

 qualified for all services and all elements, the creature was a fit companion 

 for the kindred reptiles that swarmed in the seas or crawled on the shores of 

 a turbulent planet. 



"The Fiend, 



O'er bog, or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. 

 And swims*, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 



Paradise Lost, Book II. line 947. 



I had for some time past suspected the existence of the Pterodactyle in the 

 lias at Lyme ; partly from having heard, about twenty years ago, that in the 

 collection of Mr. Rowe, then made at Charmouth, there was the skeleton of a 

 fossil bird, which I never saw, but imagine may have been a Pterodactyle ; and 

 partly from having found, four years ago at Lyme, in the collection of Miss 

 Philpots, some bones of a wing and toe, wliich I could refer to no other 

 animal, and of which a drawing was then made for me. More recently, I 

 have discovered in the cabinet of Miss Philpots a thin elongated fragment of 

 flat bone, which appears to be the jaw of a Pterodactyle ; it is set with very 

 minute, flat, lancet-shaped teeth, bearing the character of alacertine animal — 

 A drawing of it is annexedf. 



Having thus established the existence of this genus at so early a period in 

 the secondary formations as that of the lias, I revert to an opinion expressed to 

 me in 1823 by Mr. I. S. Miller of Bristol, — that many of the bones in the Oxford 

 Museum, from the oolitic slate of Stonesfield, which have generally been con- 

 sidered as the bones of birds, ought rather to be referred to the Pterodactyle. 

 At that time I saw much reason to adopt his opinion with respect to many 

 specimens; and I now, on further examination, am disposed to think that 

 they may all be referred to a flying reptile rather than a bird ; and it is 



* In the Zoological Journal, No. XVI. p. 458, is a paper by G. Tradescant Lay, Esq. on the 

 Pier opus Pselaphon, or Vampyre Bat, of the Island of Bonin, which shows that animal, in case 

 of need, to possess the power of swimming. " One of them being placed by the sailors on a raft 

 thrown into the sea, and having for some time laboured in vain to find a convenient place to 

 suspend itself, abandoned the raft, and swam pertinaciously after tlie boat." 



t Plate XXVII. fig. 3. 



2f2 



