Sir P. G. Egerton's Catalogue of Fossil Fish. 487 



ischiadic foramen oval, of moderate size. Cotyloid cavities placed 

 near the centre of the pelvis ; os pubis not continued far downwards, 

 with the extremity inclined upwards and inwards. 



Scapulars broad, widest near their extremities, which are pointed. 



The skeleton was too much injured to enable me to make out the 

 numbering of the vertebrae with certainty. 



Remarks. — In the anatomy of the soft parts, as far as I 

 could make them out from a much damaged specimen, and 

 in the skeleton, a great preponderance is shown in favour of 

 the genus Merops being classed with the Kingfishers, which 

 indeed might be expected from the extei'nal structure ; and in 

 those points in which it differs it appears to approach the 

 Humming Birds, a group which I think must also be classed 

 among the fissirostral or volitorial division of birds. 



The sternum, in having two posterior fissures on each side, 

 agrees with the Kingfishers, but is altogether longer and has 

 a deeper keel in proportion to its length, and the inferior 

 edge of it is more rounded than in that family, in which par- 

 ticulars it appears to approach the Humming Birds. 



The coracoids and humerus are proportionally shorter, al- 

 though of nearly the same form as among the AlcedinidcB : 

 these portions of the skeleton are found remarkably short 

 among the Humming Birds. 



In the structure of the pelvinal bones, the os furcatum, and 

 ribs, Merops agrees precisely with the typical Kingfishers. 



LII. — A Catalogue of Fossil Fish in the Collections oftheEiAni. 

 OF Enniskillen, F.G.S., &c. and Sir Philip Grey 

 Egerton, Bart., F.R.S., &c.* 



* This Catalogue has been printed for pi-ivate distribution by Sir Philip 

 Grey Egerton, to whose kindness we are indebted for permission to insert it. 



