416 Zoological Society. 



ft. in. 



Length of the tail 3 



From the snout to the insertion of the fore-paw 1 6 



From the insertion of the fore-paw to that of the hind-paw. . 2 10 



Circumference of the body near the fore-paws 3 2 



Breadth of the back at the fore-paws 1 



From one fore-paw to the other, extended out 2 6 



Length of the fore-paw 10 



Length of the hind-paw. 11 



Circumference at the hind-paws 1 6 



Breadth of the head across the ears, horizontally measured. . 7 



Length of the head 9 



Breadth of the nose 4% 



" Other seals have been taken nearly, if not quite, double this 

 size." 



A paper was then read, " On a new Genus of the Family Lophidce 

 (les Pectorales Pedicures, Cuv.) discovered in Madeira." By the 

 Rev. R. T. Lowe, M.A., Corr. Memb. 



The addition, Mr. Lowe observes, of an unequivocal new genus to 

 a family so circumscribed and so singular as Lophidce is -well- worthy 

 of remark. The present genus has, besides, further claims on the 

 attention of the ichthyologist in the peculiar combination of distinc- 

 tive features of its own with characters exhibited by other groups in 

 the same family ; and this independent of the interest attaching to 

 the fish in which they are exemplified, from singularity of form and 

 aspect, brilliancy of colouring, locality, and extreme rarity, no other 

 instance of its capture at Madeira having occurred during the last 

 twenty years. 



It is nearest allied amongst the groups of Lophidce, in general 

 habit and aspect, with Cheironectes, Cuv., although in technical cha- 

 racters it may seem to approach even nearer to Halieutcea, Val. 



The individual described was taken with an ordinary bait and line 

 at the Picos, a rocky shoal about a league from shore off Camera de 

 Lobos, a village five or six miles westward of Funchal. 



Chaunax, nov. gen. 



Char. Gen. Corpus subcubico-oblongum, sufflatabile, nudum, cute 

 prsesertim ad ilia ventremque flaccidissima laxa ; antice obesum, pos- 

 tice abrupte attenuatum subcompressum. Caput osseum magnum 

 subtetrahedrum, superne nuchaque latum planatum, utrinque S. ad 

 genas declive ; oculis lateralibus spatio interoculari convexo ; ore 

 rictuque amplissimis trans versis plagio-plateis S. depresses. Dentes 

 intermaxillares vomerinique palatinique parvi scobinati. Nares sim- 

 plices (nee pedicellatse nee tubulosse). Spiracula (foramina branchi- 

 alia) postica S. ad ilia pone pinnarum pectoralium axillas. 



Pinna dorsalis unica ; pectoralibus (pedicellatis) carnosis ventrali- 

 bus jugularibus spathulatis carnosis ; analis postica ; caudalis sim- 

 plex truncata. 



Cirri, prseter unicum in fossula internasali, nulli. 



