PEOF. OWEN ON THE SKELL OE MEGALOSAEEES. 347 



some years been given up by palaeontologists. Several bones in 

 these specimens had been noticed by Prof. Owen which had certainly 

 escaped the observation of others. He believed that the complete 

 skull would show a curious combination of Lacertilian and Avian 

 characters, such as might result from growth of the cerebral region 

 in an embryonic Crocodilian type. He thought the figure repre- 

 sented, in the back part of the head, too wide a divergence from 

 known Dinosaurians. Up to the present time he had had a very 

 imperfect conception of the relation between the premaxillary bone 

 and the maxillary in the Ornithosauria. He held that the Orni- 

 thosauria need not be cold-blooded because no trace of an exterior 

 covering to the integument could be detected. He thought some 

 trace of a filamentous covering could be detected. Their structures 

 appeared to him to agree in so many respects with those of birds 

 that he thought Ornithosaurs must have been warm-blood ?d. 



Prof. Owex expressed his sense of the kind way in which his 

 communication had been received. It was to some extent pole- 

 mical ; bat his excuse was that the last attempt to add to our 

 knowledge of Megalosaurus was in vol. xxvi. part 1, of the 

 ' Quarterly Journal ; ' and there the author had made statements 

 concerning his (Prof. Owen's) views as to the relations of Dinosauria 

 which were not exactly correct. 



