DRAGONS OF THE AIR

FIG. 47. RHAMPHORHYNCHUS PHYLLURUS

SHOWING THE PRESERVATION OF THE WING MEMBRANES FIG. 47. RHAMPHORHYNCHUS PHYLLURUS

From the Lithographic slate of Eichstädt, Bavaria

Frontispiece

DRAGONS OF THE AIR

AN ACCOUNT OF
EXTINCT FLYING REPTILES

BY

H. G. SEELEY, F.R.S.

PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; LECTURER ON GEOLOGY
AND MINERALOGY IN THE ROYAL INDIAN ENGINEERING COLLEGE

WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS

"I AM A BROTHER OF DRAGONS"
	Job xxx. 29

NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO.
LONDON: METHUEN & CO.
1901

[Pg v]

PREFACE

I was a student of law at a time when SirRichard Owen was lecturing on Extinct FossilReptiles. The skill of the great master, who builtbones together as a child builds with a box ofbricks, taught me that the laws which determine theforms of animals were less understood at that timethan the laws which govern the relations of men intheir country. The laws of Nature promised a betterreturn of new knowledge for reasonable study. Alecture on Flying Reptiles determined me to attemptto fathom the mysteries which gave new types of lifeto the Earth and afterwards took them away.

Thus I became the very humble servant of theDragons of the Air. Knowing but little about themI went to Cambridge, and for ten years worked withthe Professor of Geology, the late Rev. Adam Sedgwick,LL.D., F.R.S., in gathering their bones from theso-called Cambridge Coprolite bed, the CambridgeGreensand. The bones came in thousands, batteredand broken, but instructive as better materials might[Pg vi]not have been. My rooms became filled with remainsof existing birds, lizards, and mammals, which threwlight on the astonishing collection of old bones whichI assisted in bringing together for the University.

In time I had something to say about FlyingAnimals which was new. The story was told inthe theatre of the Royal Institution, in a seriesof lectures. Some of them were repeated in severalEnglish towns. There was still much to learn offoreign forms of flying animals; but at last, withthe aid of the Government grant administered by theRoyal Society, and the chiefs of the great Continentalmuseums, I saw all the specimens in Europe.

So I have again written out my lectures, with theaid of the latest discoveries, and the story of animalstructure has lost nothing in interest as a twice-toldtale. It still presents in epitome the story of life onthe Earth. He who understands whence the FlyingReptiles came, how they endured, and disappearedfrom the Earth, has solved some of the greatestmysteries of life. I have only contributed somethingtowards solving the problems.

In telling my story, chiefly of facts in Nature, anattempt is made to show how a naturalist does hiswork, in the hope that perhaps a few readers will findhappiness in following the workings of the laws oflife. Such an illumination has proved to manyworth se

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