346 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. 



The only known example of this species is that which has already served for 

 the original of figures and descriptions by Volta and Agassiz. It would be super- 

 fluous to here enumerate the specific characters, which have been noted in con- 

 siderable detail by the latter author. 



Genus Mene Lacepede. 

 [In Part I of the "Catalog of Fossil Fishes in the Carnegie Museum, " Memoirs 

 Carnegie Museum, Vol. IV, p. 366, Mr. Eastman alluded to the fact that numerous 

 fine examples of Mens rhombea (Volta) are contained in the collection, but gave no 

 figure of the species, except a reproduction of a text-figure, showing the cranial 

 osteology, taken from Cramer's article entitled "Ueber Me7ie rhombeus (Volta)" 

 (c/. Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesell., Vol. LVIII, 1906, pp. 181-212). This omission 

 the Editor supplies in Plate XLVIIA by a figure of one of the well-preserved speci- 

 mens belonging to the Bayet Collection (No. 4369), showing the remarkable 

 development of the anterior rays of the pelvic fins. The introduction of this 

 plate is made in order to visualize the difference between Mene rhombea (Volta), 

 Mene oblongn (Agassiz) (c/. Eastman, Memoirs Carnegie Museum, Vol. IV, PL 

 XCII, fig. 3), and the species hereinafter described by Eastman as a new species 

 under the name Mene novce-hispcmicp , cf. Text-figure 4. W. J. Holland.] 



19. Mene novae-hispaniae, sp. nov. 

 1755. "Fish which we call an old-wife." F. Byam, Philos. Trans., Vol. IX, p. 

 295, PI. IX. 



Type. — Figure of a fish found in counterpart on the island of Antigua, the 

 location of the specimen not now being known. 



Closely resembling M. rhombea, but the dorsal border less strongly arched, and 

 trunk not so deep as in that species. Maximum depth of trunk equalling its 

 length from the pectoral arch to the base of the caudal fin, and the latter appar- 

 ently slightly excavated. Dorsal fin located as in M. rhombea; but giving no 

 evidence as to the extent of elongation of the anterior ray of the pelvic fin. 



****************** 

 From the standpoint of paleogeographical distribution, and also as a criterion 

 for determining the age of the strata exposed at an elevation of about 900 feet 

 above sea-level in the Island of Antigua, it is a matter of considerable scientific 

 interest to be able to determine positively the presence of a species of Mene, hither- 

 to unrecognized as such, and indeed unnamed, in the older Tertiary rocks of the 

 western hemisphere. Historical interest also attaches to the fact that the original 



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