82 MIGHTY ANIMALS 



about, but rather that he might crawl around in 

 search of small animals to eat, and in the thou- 

 sands of insects flitting back and forth he found 

 plenty of daintier food. He may, also, now and 

 then, have foraged for a meal of birds' eggs up 

 and down the sides of cliffs to which he could cling 

 with the sharp claws on the ends of his fingers. 



But it is supposed that the Pterodactyl fed 

 mostly on the fishes with which the lakes and seas 

 abounded. Greedily he hovered over the water, 

 watching until a fish ventured too near the surface. 

 Then down would swoop the monster to snap up 

 his victim in his savage beak. Or, at other times, 

 he may have rowed himself over the water with his 

 powerful wings, using the wing membrane, as does the 

 bat, to grasp his prey and carry it to his mouth. 

 But, to judge from his weight, the Pterodactyl was 

 not a very large eater. One species, the head of which 

 alone measured nearly four feet in length, did not 

 weigh more than twenty-five pounds, and his largest 

 finger bones, although two feet long and six inches 

 in circumference, were almost as thin as paper ! 



No one knows just how the Pterodactyls raised 



