Another strange inhabitant of the ancient world, the _Pterodactylus_ (from πτερον, _a wing_, and δακτυλος, _a finger_), discovered in 1828, made Cuvier pronounce it to be incontestably the most extraordinary of all the extinct animals which had come under his consideration; and such as, if we saw them restored to life, would appear most strange and dissimilar to anything that now exists. In size and general form, and in the disposition and character of its wings, this fossil genus, according to Cuvier, somewhat resembled our modern bats and vampyres, but had its beak elongated like the bill of a woodcock, and armed with teeth like the snout of a crocodile; its vertebræ, ribs, pelvis, legs, and feet resembled those of a lizard; its three anterior fingers terminated in long hooked claws like that on the fore-finger of the bat; and over its body was a covering, neither composed of feathers as in the bird, nor of hair as in the bat, but probably a naked skin; in short, it was a monster resembling nothing that has ever been heard of upon earth, except the dragons of romance and heraldry. Moreover, it was probably noctivagous and insectivorous, and in both these points resembled the bat; but differed from it in having the most important bones in its body constructed after the manner of those of reptiles. [Illustration: Fig. 105.--Pterodactylus crassirostris.] “Thus, like Milton’s fiend, all-qualified for all services and all elements, the creature was a fit companion for the kindred reptiles that swarmed in the seas, or crawled on the shores, of a turbulent planet: “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 creeps, or flies. _Paradise Lost_, Book II., line 947. “With flocks of such-like creatures flying in the air, and shoals of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri swarming in the ocean, and gigantic Crocodiles and Tortoises crawling on the shores of primæval lakes and rivers--air, sea, and land must have been strangely tenanted in these early periods of our infant world.”[64] [64] Professor Buckland on the Pterodactylus. “Trans. Geol. Soc.,” 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 217. [Illustration: Fig. 106.--Pterodactylus brevirostris.]