EELATION TO REPTILES AND QUADRUPEDS. 5 
lizardsj which belonged to a remote era of our globe we 
see the winp and legs of a bat ; a long .snout, which 
might be mistaken for a bill, were not tlie jaws provido<l 
with a few teeth ; and a neck nearly the length of the 
body, which immediately reminds us of a wading bird. 
This peculiar structure, which has no analogy to any 
existing reptile, is precisely what we should look for 
in a group of animals connecting reptiles with birds, 
and ofters a far more perfect link of affinity than that 
between a tortoise and a penguin. Tliere have been dis- 
covered no less than tliree species of these birdlike 
reptiles in the different limestone slates of Europe ; and 
they obviously belong, with the PfenosaurR,, and others, 
to a distinct order of tlieir own class, nearly all of which 
were swept away by one of those convulsions of the 
globe which preceded the creation of the last and most 
perfect of the Almighty’s works — Man. 
(5.) The approximation of birds to reptiles being 
thus established, let us now see in what manner the 
former are connected to quadrupeds, at the opposite ex- 
tremity ot their circle. For this purpose we may select 
either the OrnUhorhynchm in one, or the ostrich in the 
other class, as equally tending to effect this union. I'he 
Ornithorhynchus, indeed, is a quadruped.; but so totally 
unlike its congeners, that it stands alone among them as 
a completely oviparous animal. The similarity of its 
jaws to those of a bird is so strong, that, upon its first 
discovery, it was strongly suspected the specimen sent to 
Europe was a deception, practised by some cunning fel- 
low on the credulity of naturalists, by engrafting the 
bill of a duck upon the skull of a quadruped. On turn- 
ing to the ostrich family, we find an equally strong ap- 
proximation to quadrupeds. The wings, which are the 
great characteristic of birds, are so small as to become, 
tor the purposes of flight, absolutely useless The body 
o the emu is covered with a sort of hair, rather than 
wit feathers ; while its thick feet and tramping gait 
renund us more of a horse than of a bird. 'I'he os- 
iches, in fact, are without two of the three primary 
B 3 
