anew Genus of Ganoid Fish. 113 
he designated Erpetoichthys*, the reptile- or serpent-fish ; and 
the species, from the locality where it was found, he named 
E. calabaricus. 
Since that time the author had received perfect specimens 
from Old Calabar, and found that the accuracy of his previous 
conclusions were coufirmed. 
The fish is got in the freshwater streamlets which run into the 
main rivers or creeks of the great Calabar River, and in the pools 
of the marshy lands. It is occasionally sold in the markets, and 
eaten by some of the natives. Its native name is U-nyang, 
which the Rev. Mr. Robb explains by suggesting that it may be 
derived from a verb signifying to struggle or scuffle for the 
possession of a thing, and he therefore supposes it to mean the 
struggler, or, using a Scottish word as more appropriate, the 
“wambler,” the name being probably given to it on account of 
the apparent struggling, wriggling, or undulating movements 
of its elongated body as it swims in the water or mud of the 
river. 
Summary of characters of the genus Calamoichthys, and its 
relation to the genus Polypterus :— 
Genus Calamoichthys.—Head small, depressed above, some-. 
what oval in shape (rounded and narrow in front, expands late- 
rally behind orbits, and contracts again at the back part, towards 
neck). Suboperculum wanting. (No small plates below pre- 
operculum.) Body much elongated, anguiform (cylindrical for 
about half its length, then becoming gradually more compressed 
laterally, and tapering slightly towards its caudal extremity). 
Caudal extremity short, tapering rapidly. Caudal fin rounded, 
homocereal ; fin-rays hard. (Scales osseous, rhombic, sculp- 
tured.) Fins small; pectorals obtusely lobate; fin-rays soft ; 
dorsal finlets numerous, separate; anal (with fulcrum at base 
anteriorly) im male large, in female small; fin-rays hard; ven- 
trals wanting. 
The last character is rather an important one, as this fish thus 
appears to be the only living ganoid yet known which has no 
ventral fins. Van der Hoeven, in his ‘ Handbook of Zoology,’ 
gives the presence of ventral fins as one of the characters of his 
great Section III. of the class Pisces, the Ganolepidoti; and 
older naturalists, as Cuvier, place the Ganoids, for a similar 
reason, among the Malacopteryw abdominales. The discovery of 
this fish will therefore necessitate a change in this character of 
the whole section. 
* Since this paper was sent to press, the author has learned that a closely 
corresponding name to Erpetoichthys had been already used in ichthyology ; 
and accordingly he now changes the designation to Calamoichthys (kddapos 
and iy@vs), which still bears a relation to the cylindrical shape of the fish. 
