124 Reviews — Rrof. H. G. Seeley on Ornithosanria. 
Museum, Fellows’ buildings of King’s College; Lower Chalk, in- 
terior of several churches ; it is called Clunch. 
This work, along witli Mr. Wbitaker’s list of geological papers on 
Cambridgeshire, will not only be very useful to students at Cam- 
bridge reading for the University examinations, but will also be 
very interesting to old members of the University, and we can 
strongly recommend it to readers of tbis Magazine wbo wisb to 
obtain a clear and correct view of what is at present known of the 
Geology of Cambridgeshire, as a carefully prepared and well-written 
book. J. F. W. 
H. — On the Organization of the Ornithosauria. Linnean 
Society’s Journal — Zoology. Yol. XIII. 1876, pp. 84-107. 
By Professor H. G. Seeley, F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.G.S. 
T HIS is an important paper upon an interesting palaeontological 
subject, for but in few instances have the hard lmes of Classifi- 
cation been more difficult to define, or have led to greater divergence 
of opinion among the most eminent of European naturalists, past 
and present, than has that of the natural position of the Pterodactyles 
in regard to their affinities : whether they should be classed with the 
Birds on the one hand, or with the Reptiles on the other. It is true 
that the weight of authority, whilst admitting some important 
anomalies in their Organization, refer them to the latter dass. Prof. 
Owen’s name of Pterosauria being generally accepted for the group. 
But other naturalists consider that their peculiar Organization, as de- 
duced from their osteological remains, entitle them to be elevated 
into a distinct group or Order, intermediate between birds and reptiles, 
and for which group the designation Ornithosauria was proposed by 
Prince Charles Buonaparte in 1838. Among the advocates of these 
views is the author of the memoir under consideration, and in which 
he maintains, aided by further observations and additional facts, the 
opinions enunciated some seven years ago in his useful and interest- 
ing work on the Ornithosauria in the Woodwardian Museum, Cam- 
bridge (see notice in Geol. Mag. Vol. VII. p. 341). 
From careful comparisons of the various bones of the skeleton of 
these extinct volants with the corresponding bones in birds and 
reptiles, he here describes in detail the points in which they most 
resemble, or depart from, the typical characteristics of the groups 
with which they have been compared; and maintains that theresults 
of his later examinations confirm his previous convictions, and fully 
demonstrate that the Organization of these old volants was decidedly 
more avian than reptilian. 
The most important characters upon which he relies for the Claims 
of the Pterodactylia to be classified as a distinct Order, are the pneu- 
matic foramina and the form of the brain-cavity, believing that 
“ brains and lungs are Organs of incomparably greater value in 
questions of Organization ” than manus or pes, — Organs, in which, 
a^cording to Prof. Huxley, the Pterodactyles depart most widely from 
the omithic type. 
With regard to the pneumatic foramina, he asserts that they are 
