With the hypothetical parts, this would give a length of about 3 ft. 6 in. from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail. Then
| Humerus | 8 in. | long. | |
| (Fore-arm) | ?1 ft. | 0 | ” |
| Carpus | 2 | ” | |
| Metacarpus | 10 | ” |
Which, if the fore-limbs were kept together as in ordinary quadrupeds, would give a height to the body of about 2 ft. 6 in., but as the limbs probably spread in walking as among the bats, the hind-limb would give a better idea of the height of the animal.
| (Flesh, sacrum, os innominatum). | 2 | in. |
| Femur | 4 | ” |
| (Tibia) | 6 | ” |
| (Metatarsus, &c.) | 1 | ” |
Which would give a height of about 13 inches; and, standing in the position of a bird, the height to the crown of the head would be about 2 feet. The majority of the Ornithosaurians of the Cambridge Greensand are of this size.
The spread of the wings, if there were 4 phalanges, would be
| Body | 10 | in. wide. | |
| Two arms | 5 ft. | 2 | ” |
| Two wing fingers | 7 | 0 | ” |
Giving a total expanse of about 13 feet. But, from the indications of the wing-finger, I should incline to think an expanse of 10 feet a truer estimate. The largest species attained to twice this size, and the smallest was a fourth as large. Another memoir will present descriptions and restorations of the Greensand species.
Habits.
The varying organization of different Ornithosaurians probably depends on the different habits of the tribes. That they could all fly is probable from the enormous radial crest to the humerus and the great development of the wing-bones, to which a wing-membrane was stretched, comparable to that of a Bat in texture, but more comparable to a Bird in its extent. The groups with long hind-legs probably had the membrane limited to the bones of the arm, while in the species with small hind-legs it may have attained even as great a development as in Bats, though there is no reason for suspecting that it extended to the tail. A Pterodactyle cannot be supposed to have hung itself up by the hind-legs as does a Bat, because the hind-claws appear invariably to be directed forward. A Bat walks upon four legs with considerable elegance and speed; the wing is folded in, close to the side, so as to be scarcely noticed; and the outer claw is free to climb with. There can be little doubt but that Pterodactyles walked in a similar way. The thickened mammilate knob at the proximal end of the first phalange is well calculated for contact with the ground. And if it were supposed that the large wing-metacarpal bone were only used to support the wing, and the small metacarpals only used to support the claws by which the creature has sometimes been pictured suspending itself, it would be difficult to believe that the forces of pressure and tension in flying so exactly corresponded to the forces manifested in suspension as to cause the large and the small metacarpals invariably to attain the same length. A correspondence of this kind may be presumed to indicate a correspondence in function; and since the animal did not fly by means of its claws, the inference is that it walked by means of the metacarpal bones. In no other way could the bones have been used equally. The avian ilium would suggest a probability that they also at times stood erect like birds, from which position they could with more ease expand their wings; nor is such an idea opposed by the resemblance of some bones of the hind-limb to what obtains in birds, and of the neck of the femur to what is seen in mammals of great power in the hind-legs.