514 Davis—On the Fossil Fishes of the Chalk of Mount Lebanon. 
careful comparison of all the forms named, it is impossible to ignore the marked 
approximation in the characters of the three last-named species of Beryx with 
those of Hoplopteryx, as instituted by Agassiz and defined by Von der Marck, 
and at the same time not to mark their divergence from the type of the genus, viz. 
Beryx ornatus, described in the ‘ Poissons Fossiles” by Agassiz, as well as from 
those at present existing in tropical seas. It therefore becomes necessary either 
to broaden the definition of the genus Beryx, so as to embrace that of Hop- 
lopteryx, as was suggested by Pictet and Humbert, or to transfer some of the 
aberrant forms from Beryx to that of Hoplopteryx. Considering that there is the 
advantage of living specimens of Beryx to compare with those found fossil, and 
that they form a natural group, evidently closely related, whilst Hoplopteryx 
forms a centre round which the species Beryx zippei, B. superbus, and B. syriacus 
appear to naturally arrange themselves, there can be no hesitation in transferring 
these species to the genus Hoplopteryx, which will also include the following 
new species from the collection of Prof. Lewis. 
It may be worth while to direct attention to the evident resemblance of the 
species of Hoplopteryx from the chalk of Lebanon to the genus Priscacara described 
by Prof. E. D. Cope, obtained from the Eocene formation at Wyoming (‘ United 
States Geol. Surv. of the Terr.: the Vertebrata of the Tertiary Formations of the 
West,” 1884, book i., p. 92). The genus Priscacara is characterized as belonging 
to the Pharyngognathi, with ctenoid scales and well-developed spinous rays; it 
bears a close relationship with the Pomacentride, differing, however, in the posses- 
sion of vomerine teeth, and apparently in having eight branchiostegal rays. The 
form of the body and the arrangement of the fins approach closely to Hoplopteryx. 
The dorsal fin consists of ten to twelve spinous rays, succeeded by soft rays. 
The anal has three spinous rays in front, and the ventral fin is preceded by a single 
spinous ray. The spinous and soft rays of the dorsal fin are continuous, as in 
Hoplopteryx. The latter appears to be distinguished by the larger number of its 
vertebrae and its jaws being furnished with teeth; in Priscacara the jaws are 
toothless, only the pharyngeal bones are studded with minute conical teeth. 
Hoplopteryx syriacus, Prcrer and HvuMBERT. 
Beryx syriacus. P. and H., 1866. ‘Nouv. rech. sur les Poissons fossiles,” 
p- 28, pl. 
This species, for the reasons already stated in discussing the characteristics of 
the genus, it is now proposed to transfer from Beryx to Hoplopteryx. 
Formation and Locality.—Upper Cretaceous: Sahel Alma, Mount Lebanon. 
Ex coll—Museum at Geneva (type), common. 
