122 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
monster? And do we not now know that there are hundreds of 
them found fossil up and down the world? People call them 
Pterodactyls ; but that is only because they are ashamed to call 
them flying dragons, after denying so long that flying dragons 
could exist.” 
The illustrious Cuvier observes that it was not merely in 
magnitude that reptiles stood pre-eminent in ancient days, but 
they were distinguished by forms more varied and extraordinary 
than any that are now known to exist on the face of the earth. 
Among these extinct beings of ages incalculably remote, are the 
Ptero4actyls,^ or “ wing-fingered ” creatures, which had the power 
of flight, not by a membrane stretched over elongated fingers as in 
bats, nor by a wing without distinct or complete fingers, as in birds, 
but by a membrane supported chiefly by a greatly extended little 
finger, the other fingers being short and armed with claws. 
The only reptile now existing which has any power of sustain- 
ing itself in the air is the little Draco Volans^ or ‘‘ flying lizard,” 
so called ; but this can scarcely be regarded as a flying animal. 
Its hinder pair of ribs, however, are prolonged to such an extent 
that they support a broad expansion of the skin, so spread out 
from side to side as to perform the office of a parachute, thus 
enabling the creature to spring from tree to tree by means of 
extended leaps ; and this it does with wonderful activity. 
Many forms of Pterodactyl are known. Some were not larger 
than a sparrow; others about the size of a woodcock ; yet others 
much larger, the largest of all having a spread of wing (or rather 
of the flying membranes) of twenty-five feet ! It has been con- 
cluded that they could perch on trees, hang against perpendicular 
surfaces, such as the edge of a cliff, stand firmly on the ground, 
and probably crawl on all fours with wings folded. It may be 
well at once to point out that the Pterodactyl had no true wings 
like those of a bird, but a thin membrane similar to that of a bat, 
only differently supported ; so it must be understood that, when 
^ From the Greek — pteron, wing, and dactylos, finger. 
