“You see before you,” he says, “an animal which in all points of bony structure, from the teeth to the extremity of the nails, presents the well-known saurian characteristics, and of which one cannot doubt that its integuments and soft parts, its scaly armour, and its organs of circulation and reproduction, were likewise analogous. But it was at the same time an animal provided with the means of flying; and when stationary, its wings were probably folded back like those of a bird, although, perhaps, by the claws attached to its fingers, it might suspend itself from the branches of trees. Its usual position, when not in motion, would be upon its hind feet, resting like a bird, and with its neck set up and curved backwards, to prevent the weight of the enormous head from destroying its equilibrium. Any attempt, however, to picture this strange animal in a living state, would appear to one who has not followed the whole argument to be rather the production of a diseased imagination, than the necessary completion of a sketch of which the main outlines are known to be true. The animal was undoubtedly of the most extraordinary kind, and would appear, if living, the strangest of all creatures. Something approaching to it in form we may perhaps recognise in the fantastic pictures of the Chinese; but art has, in this respect, not been able to rival nature; and the fabled centaur, or dragon, do not present anomalies more strange than those of the species we have been considering.”
This description of Cuvier will recal to the reader’s mind the well-known words of Milton (Par. Lost, Book II. line 247), in which, in his description of an imaginary fiend, he almost realizes to the life the animal whose extinct and fossil remains have been so recently disinterred.
“The fiend
O’er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And sinks or swims, or wades or walks, or creeps or flies.”
1. PTERODACTYLE, FROM SOLENHOFEN, (one-third natural size.)
We conclude this chapter by giving drawings of the Pterodactyle. The first is the Pterodactyle as found at Solenhofen; the second is the skeleton restored; and the third the animal itself, according to the best judges of what a portrait of the Pterodactyle would be.
