164 THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETT 



PAPERS READ. 



On a New Ganoid Fish from Queensland. 



By Count F. de Caste lnau. 



Plate 19 A. 



I have received from Mr. Sfcaiger of the Brisbane Museum a 

 drawing of a very remarkable fish, with the following note : — " It 

 is only found in a single water hole in the Burnett River, living 

 together with Ceratodus ; and when in August, 1872, I wfis in 

 Gayndah, I got it on the breakfast table, brought in by blacks from 

 a distance of about eight to ten miles. I had the fish for breakfast, 

 remarked its curious shape, and asked the then Road Inspector 

 to draw it for me, which he did. Ceratodus, not well known then, 

 formed the dinner. I was not connected with any scientific body, 

 otherwise I would have, at any rate, preserved the head. The 

 person who drew it is not an ichthyologist but still is a draughts- 

 man." 



On examining the rough and incomplete sketch, I saw 

 immediately that the fish was a ganoid nearly allied to Atrac- 

 tosteus but forming, by its dorsal, caudal and anal fins, all united, 

 the type of a new genus, and probably of a new family. 



It is remarkable that all the species of ganoid fishes known, 

 having a long, more or less, crocodile back, are until now, only 

 from America. It is evident that from such a drawing no correct 

 description can be given ; all I can say is that it shows the exist- 

 ence in Australia of a ganoid fish with a very elongate and very 

 depressed spatuli-form snout ; this is much narrower at its base 

 than towards the two-thirds of its length ; it is rounded and 

 bordered at its extremity, having very much the form of the beak 

 of the Platypus, the two jaws are of about equal length ; the eye 

 very small and placed near the upper part of the head ; the body 

 is covered with large ganoid scales ; the pectorals appear small, 

 and are placed immediately behind and below the head ; the 

 vertical fins are very long and united, but notwithstanding, 

 the caudal seems rather distinct; nothing is said of the dentition. 

 Mr. Staiger says also that the fish is of a dirty mahogany color ; 

 and he adds that *' the first of the four rays is very strong ;" but 



