i 62 
THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
eight feet, and it is believed to have been the tallest of all creatures on the 
Eastern Continent; its length was nearly thirty feet. A splendid plaster speci¬ 
men of this remarkable reptile may be seen in the Smithsonian Institute at 
Washington City. 
We have next to describe the most grotesque and horrifying creature that 
inhabited the ancient world, a wild phantasm of nature, more terrible in its 
appearance than a nightmare conception. Its hybridity was so remarkable that 
it was reptile, bird and bat all at once, having the characteristics and sem¬ 
blance of each. The scientific appellation of this mongrel monstrosity is ptero- 
dactylus , which is a Greek word^ that implies wing-toed. The name was given 
it because the fifth toe of its anterior limbs was enormously elongated into a 
ribbed stem, intended to support a membrane which made the wing. This 
wing very much resembled the bat’s, except that the. phalanges were much 
stronger in proportion, as were also the muscles, so that its flight was very much 
swifter. The nose was prolonged into a beak which was severely armed with 
teeth. 
Dr. Buckland, in his “Bridgewater Treatise,” expresses the opinion that 
-the pterodactyl possessed the faculty of swimming, and also that it fed. on 
fishes, which it caught by dashing down upon them after the manner of various 
fish-catching sea-birds. Cuvier judged it to be nocturnal, from the extraordinary 
;size of its eyes, and this probability is increased by its other bat-like charac¬ 
teristics. Mangin says: 
“ The size and shape of the feet prove that these animals could stand erect 
with firmness, their wings folded, and that they thus possessed a mode of pro¬ 
gression analogous to that of birds; like them, also, they could perch upon 
