356 Miscellaneous. 



Konig figures a remarkable fossil from the London Clay of Sheppey, 

 which is mentioned in the text as not certainly determinable, but 

 generally regarded, by the anatomists who have examined it, as 

 pertaining to some type of lizard. This specimen is preserved in 

 the British Museum, and the author has determined that it is truly 

 the imperfect head and pectoral arch of a Siluroid. The roof of the 

 skull is preserved almost as far forwards as the middle of the frontals ; 

 the pectoral arch is in position, though slightly bent backwards ; 

 and the mass of anchylosed anterior vertebrae, with the basioccipital, 

 is displaced downwards and thrown beneath the clavicles. All the 

 bones are remarkably strong, and the exposed surfaces are orna- 

 mented with large tubercles. The head must have been originally 

 somewhat deeper than broad, and the roof exhibits no flattening 

 but is strongly arched from side to side. Posteriorly, the supraoc- 

 cipital projects in the usual manner, probably to meet a dermal 

 plate upon the nape ; and the post-temporal element seems to be 

 merged with the bones of the postero-lateral angles of the cranium. 

 It is impossible to determine the family position of the genus in the 

 usual manner, but the skulls of the West-African Auchenoglanis and 

 Synodontis appear to approach the fossil most closely. The pro- 

 visional name of BucklancUum diluvii may be retained ; and the fish 

 is interesting as being the earliest undoubted Siluroid hitherto 

 discovered. 



On the Genenc Name of tlie Tunny. By David Stake Jordan. 



In the first edition of the ' Regne Animal,' 1817, pp. 313, 314, 

 the generic names Tliynnus and Orcynus were proposed for the 

 Tunnies. The former name was given to the short-finned tunnies, 

 type Scomber tliynnus, L., and the latter to the species with long, 

 ribbon-shaped pectorals, type Scomber germo., Jj^q,.,-= Scomber ala- 

 tunga (cdalonga), Gmelin. 



It has been generally agreed that these two grotips are generically 

 identical. Many European writers have continued to use the name 

 Thynnus for both, although this name was much earlier preempted 

 by Fabricius for a genus of insects. 



The name Orcynus is, however, also preoccupied, having been 

 proposed by Rafinesque in 1815 in his worthless ' Analyse de la 

 Nature ' as a substitute for Scombrokles, Lacepede. 



According to current rules of nomenclature the group of Tunnies 

 is left without a tenable generic name. I therefore propose the 

 name Albacora for the group of which Scomber thynnus is the type, 

 this species being with others widely known as AJbacore. The 

 subgenus or genus distinguished by the elongate pectorals may be 

 called Germo, its type being Sc. cdcdonga, Gmelin. — Proc. Acad, 

 Nat. Sci. PUlad. 1888, p. 180. 



