204 Miscellaneous. 



parts of tlie body ; irritation failed to dimiuisli, or increase, or even 

 to excite the effect. 



"With reference to the moot point as to whether these bodies are 

 accessory eyes or merely luminous organs, I may meution that one 

 of the causes of the diffused idiosphoresceuce of the sea I have ob- 

 served to lie in the bright phosphorescence constantly emitted by 

 the eyes of a small shrimp (about half an inch in length) which 

 abounds in the 8outh Atlantic ; we have in this animal, therefore, 

 an instance of a " luminous eye." I hope you will pardon this 

 suggestion of mine ; but I thought it right to insert it, in the event 

 of there being any thing novel in it. 



H.M.S. 'Lark,' Sydney, 

 December 1881."^ 



On the Occurrence of Ccntrolophus pom])ilus on the East Coast of 

 England. Ti}' Dr. A. GtJ^'XHER. 



I am indebted to Henry Laver, Esq., for a very fine example of 

 the Black-fish {Centroloj)hus pompilas), which was caught on the 

 20th of Novcml)er last by Captain Cranfield of Eowhedge, at the 

 mouth of the C'olne. 



The majority of the British specimens of this fish have been ob- 

 tained on the coast of Cornwall ; and, so far as I am aware, tliis is 

 the first instance known of the fish having wandered so far east- 

 wards. 



The oldest Artiodacty'le. By E. D. Cope. 



Members of this order have been found in the Upper Eocene of 

 North America {Achcenodon) ; but none have been determined as yet 

 from the American Suessonian or Lower Eocene. A sjjecies rej^re- 

 sented by teeth from the Siderolitic beds of Switzerland has been 

 referred to Dichohune (D. camptchu, Pict.) ; but dental characters 

 alone are not sufficient to distinguish that genus from the Pcrisso- 

 dactyle Phcnacodontida3*. Dr. Lemoine found astragali of a small 

 Artiodactylo in the Suessonian of Eeims, which he has recently 

 ascribed to his Lophiocha'rus Peroni, which he believes (Proceedings 

 French Assoc. Adv. Sci-, Montpcllier, 18S0) to be a suilline. I have 

 reported an astragalus from tlie Wind-Pviver formation of Wyoming 

 Territory, which is almost exactly similar to those found by Lemoine, 

 A specimen of Mioclcenus brachj/stovms, Cope, now to be described, 

 enables me to characterize Avith some degree of completeness this 

 interesting form, which precedes in time all the known American 

 Artiodactyla. 



The characters of the tarsus are typically those of the order 

 Artiodactyla. The astragalus exhibits a distal trochlea which is 

 continuous with the susteutacular facet, and which articulates with 

 both cuboid and navicular bones. 



* See * American Naturahst/ 1881; December. 



