IV 
PREFATORY NOTICE. 
disqualified by the infirmities of old age for the discharge 
of some of its laborious and more active duties. 
It would be an idle act of folly to put the Cambridge 
Fossil Reptiles in comparison with the magnificent Reptile 
series in the British Museum. And there are several pro¬ 
vincial and private Collections which contain important Ge¬ 
nera of which we have no specimens ; and, it may be, which 
also contain better illustrations, than we are able to exhibit, 
of certain Genera that do appear in our Catalogues. Still, 
we have ample, well arranged, and good materials for the use 
of the academic student; and in the great abnormal and 
difficult Sub-class of Ornithosaurians (or Pterosaurians, should 
that name be preferred) we have a great series of specimens 
(derived from the, so-called, u Coprolite Diggings ” near 
Cambridge) of perhaps unrivalled interest in the illustration 
of the osteological structures and true relations of the Sub¬ 
class. 
While unavoidably absent from Cambridge, and without 
access to my notes and books of reference, I am unable to 
give a history of our Reptile collection in any detailed chro¬ 
nological order. What I now write is a mere sketch, which, 
should it be thought expedient, may be amplified and reduced 
to a more exact order in the Introduction to future cata¬ 
logues which are now in progress. 
In the year 1819 I procured a few specimens of the 
Ichthyosaur from the Lias of Somersetshire, which now ap¬ 
pear in our arranged collection: and in the year following 
some additions were made to the Reptiles of the Lias, during 
an excursion along the coast of Dorsetshire. In. several sub¬ 
sequent years valuable specimens were purchased from Mary 
Anneing of Lyme Regis, a collector of early celebrity. Among 
them were two very good specimens of the Ichthyosaur; and 
a very beautiful Pentacrinite, showing the animal structures in 
great perfection. All these are now mounted in the Museum. 
In 1821 our first Plesiosaur was obtained by purchase at 
an auction of fossils which had been collected by a naturalist 
of Lichfield. The Genus was at that time so little under- 
