CONNECTING LINKS IN CLASSIFICATION. 3 



the pelvis, the shoulder-girdle, and the feathers, as far as their 

 structure can be made out, are completely those of existing birds. 

 Two digits of the Manus have curved claws, and, to all appearance, 

 the metacarpal bones are quite free and disunited, exhibiting, 

 according to Professor Huxley, closer approximation' to the reptilian 

 structure than any existing bird. Mr. Evans has even detected that 

 the mandibles were provided with teeth. 



Fig. 1. — Archseopteryx lithOgraphicus. 



On the other hand, the same writer points out certain peculiarities 

 in the single reptile found also among the Solenhofen slates which 

 has been described and named Compsognathus longipes by the late 

 Andreas Wagner. This reptile he declares "to be a still nearer 

 approximation to the missing link between reptiles and birds," thus 

 further narrowing the gap between the two classes. 



While we think it proper to point to these structural resemblances 

 of one class of the animal creation to others very different in their 

 external appearance, it is necessary to guard our readers from 

 adopting the inferences sometimes deduced; that "these infinitely 

 diversified forms are merely the final terms in an immense series of 



b 2 



