

ROOM V. FOSSIL FISHES OF THE CTENOID ORDER. 441 



BERYX. Wall-case C. (No. 17, 18.) This fine series of Ichthyolites 

 from the Chalk of Sussex, (formerly in my collection,) contains four 

 species of a genus of the Perch family, named Beryx, of which there are 

 two existing species in the Australian seas. The first that I succeeded 

 in clearing from the chalk of Lewes, was the specimen of Beryx figured 

 in my "Fossils of the South Downs," tab. 34, and which is in the Case 

 before us ; it was the first published representation of an Ichthyolite 

 from the cretaceous formation of England ; the fossil remains of fishes 

 previously collected and described by authors, consisted of the teeth, 

 bones, &c., but no one appears to have suspected that the scaly covering, 

 with the fins, branchial arches, cranial bones, jaws, and teeth, were pre- 

 served, and could be displayed in their original position, by the skilful 

 removal of the surrounding stone. 





LIGN 90. BERYX LEWESTEXSIS, FROM THE CHALK, LEWES. 

 (A not. size.) 



The fishes of the genus Beryx are closely allied to the common 

 Perches ; they have one dorsal fin with several spinous rays in front of 

 the soft rays, and the head is very large : the jaws are covered with a 

 broad band of brush-teeth. The orbit is large, and often contains the 

 capsule of the eye ; the scales are relatively very large, the vertebras 

 large and short, with long apophyses, and the ribs short. The Beryx 

 Lewesiensis, (Lign. 90,) is the most common of the Icthyolites of the 

 white chalk ; it is called the " Johnny-Dory" by the quarrymen of Sus- 

 sex. Another and larger species (B. superbus}, sometimes thirteen inches 

 long, with very large and broad scales, occurs in the lower chalk at 

 Lewes. There are two species from the chalk-marl ; B. radians, the 

 scales of which are fringed with minute diverging spines ;' and B. mi- 

 crocephalus, distinguished by its elongated form and small head. There 

 are examples of both in the collection, from near Lewes, 2 



1 See " Medals of Creation," p. 561, and " Wonders of Geology," pp. 

 350, 351. 



2 Of this rare Ichthyolite, I have lately been presented with a fine 

 specimen from Clayton, Sussex, by my friend, Frederick Harford, Esq. 





