17G PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



which lay in front of the orbit, and not at its antero-superior 

 ano-le. The inner inferior margin of the maxilla is grooved, as 

 sho-ttai in Fig. 1 and 3; the groove dies out at the posterior limit 

 of the teeth. If the batrachian character of the fossil is denied, 

 this groove ceases to correspond to an air passage; but, on the 

 other hand, it appears, from specimens in Jermyn Street, and in 

 the British Museum, that the roof of the mouth was closed in by 

 dentigerous palatines, which fitted to the inner margin of the 

 maxilla, as in Pohjpferus and the Coelacanths. Importance seems to 

 l)e attached, by implication, to the fact that the outer surface of 

 the jaw in the British Museum had a reticulate ornament; but it 

 has since been shown that the enamel may be deficient to a 

 slight extent (as in Fig. 2), or largely, or may even be wholly 

 wanting over the cranial plates, the scales of the trunk retaining 

 abundant enamel. 



For these reasons, then, I submit that the genus Parahafrachus 

 ouglit to be expunged from our lists of British fossils, being a 

 synonym of Megalichthys, or of some allied genus, and especially 

 because it suggests an erroneous interpretation of the systematic 

 position of the animal to which the jaw belonged. 



EXPLANATIONS OP PLATE I., FIGS. 1, 2, 3. 



Fig. 1 . — Parabatrachus Colei, Owen. One f oiu-th natural size. Copied from 

 Quarterly Journal Geological Society, "Vol. IX., PI. II. 



Fig. 2. — Megaliclithys. Maxillary bone, outer surface, natural size; im- 

 perfect posteriorly, surface much worn. Patches of enamel showing deficiencies, 

 partly due to abrasion, partly to originally imperfect development. A char- 

 acteristic scale is impacted between the maxilla and its pre-frontal process. — 

 Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. 



Fig. 3. — MegaUcldhys. Maxillary bone, inner surface, showing outline of 

 bone completed by area of cast surrounded by solid line, and restoration of top 

 with dotted lines, — Cabinet of Dr Ranldne, Carluke. 



II. — On the History and Habits of the Eoedeer (Cervus capreolus). 

 By Mr Edward R. Alston. 



After remarking on the incorrectness of the accounts of this 

 species {Cervus capreolus) given l^y most authors, Mr Alston 

 observed that the history of its gestation and breeding had long 

 been a puzzle to German naturalists; for, though the buck was 

 known to seek his mate in July and August, no frnti were ever 

 found -before January, and then of very small size. At last, in 

 1854, Professor BischofF of Giessen, an anatomist of European 



