128 Scientific Intelligence. . % 
rounded end. This character of the tail is novel and unexpected because 
of the constancy with which all known existing and Tertiary birds have 
presented the short bony tail, with the terminal modification, in most of 
them, of the ploughshare bone 
Professor Owen next gives the results of iaventigations into the oste- 
ogeny of embryo birds, showing the number of vertebrae corresponding 
to the anterior caudals in Archeopteryx which alee with the pelvis in © 
the course of growth, and the degree to which the posterior caudals re- 
=~ a resemblance to those of Archeopteryx in the Birds with rudimental 
ings. From eighteen to twenty caudal vertebrae may be counted in the 
oithe Ostrich. In Archeopteryx the embryonal separation persists, with 
such continued growth of the individual caudal vertebrae as is commonly 
seen in fong-tailed ae ee —— ee or Mamm alian. The 
stage, at which, in Paleozoic and man y Mesozoic ‘fhe it was arrest 
Thus he discerns, i in the main differential character of the Mesozoic bird, 
a retention of structure which is embryonal and feabaitory in the modern 
representatives of the class, and consequently a closer adhesion to the a 
general vertebrate ty 
The least equivocal parts of the present fossil declare it to be a Bir, ie 
with rare peculiarities indicative of a distinct order in that class. Ap 
oie the head is absent, the author predicts, by the law of reece s 
k-shaped mouth for the preening of the plumage; and he oe 
infers a broad and keeled sternum in correlation with the remit 
feathered organs of flight. a 
The paper is accompanied by drawings of the fossil and its parts, and a. 
of homologous parts in Birds and Pterodactyls. The author assigns t0 
the fossil animal the name of Archewopteryx macrurus.— roceedings Of — 
Royal Society, Nov. 20, 1862, in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Beier : 
ie 
No. 62. 
VI. BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 
