406 Miscellaneous, 



sliield is quadrangular, about as broad as long, and narrowed behind ; 

 the second, third, and fourth are hexagonal, the second rather 

 broader than long, and the fourth longer than broad ; the second has 

 a very blunt keel, occupying its hinder half; the third and fourth 

 are sharply keeled, the keel being prominent near the hinder edge, 

 especially of the fourth shield; the fifth shield four-sided, much 

 contracted in front, and with a slightly raised sharp central keel. 



The margin is very narrow on the sides, wider and sharper-edged 

 in front, wide and rather arched over the hinder legs, rather narrow 

 and very strongly dentated behind. The sternal shields are like the 

 dorsal ones, radiately and concentrically striated, but not so strongly. 

 The head is olive black-speckled above, beneath pale yellowish, 

 darker-marbled on the sides ; the legs and feet are uniform brown, 

 covered with small scales, the front ones with two broad band-like 

 scales just over the feet ; the toes are united together to the end ; 

 the claws are narrow and sharp. Length ^\, breadth 3 inches. 



Note on a Species of Molva from the Gulf of Genoa. 

 By Dr. A. Gunther. 



M. Canestrini, in a paper "I Gadidi e Macrouridi del Golfo di 

 Genova"*, has briefly mentioned and figured a Gadoid fish which 

 he considers as identical with Lota lepidion, Risso. Mr. J. Y. John- 

 son was so fortunate as to rediscover this fish of Risso at Madeira ; 

 and the specimen, which I have fully described under the name of 

 Ilaloporphyrus lepidlon f, proves that the main characters given by 

 Risso, especially that of the four-rayed first dorsal fin, are correct. 

 On the other hand, M. Canestrini' s fish has fourteen rays in that fin, 

 and therefore it cannot be identified with that of Risso. It is evi- 

 dently a species of Molva, and, if not identical with M. vulgaris, one 

 closely allied to it. I must leave M. Canestrini to settle this point, 

 and can only add that it is improbable that a northern species like 

 the Ling should be found in the Mediterranean. 



On the Osteography of the Sirenia compared with that of the 

 Pachydermata and Cetacea. By J. F. Brandt. 



In his memoir on Rhytina Stelleri, Professor Brandt compares 

 the skeleton of that animal with those of the Manatees, Dugongs, 

 and Halitheria. The latter fossil animals may be regarded, from 

 the presence of traces of hind limbs, as the most perfect forms of the 

 Sirenia ; the Rhytince, on the contrary, from the want of teeth in 

 the adults, as the most imperfect. Thus the Dugongs would con- 

 stitute a form intermediate between the Halitheria and the Rhytince, 

 whilst the Manatees, notwithstanding the different affinities which 

 they present with the Dugongs, Halitheria, and Rhytince, would be 

 collateral forms, distinguished by the tail and teeth, and approaching 

 the Pachydermata, especially the Tapirs and Dinotheria. In this 

 way the Sirenia would be related to the Pachydermata on two dif- 

 ferent sides, by the Halitheria and the Manatees. 



* Arch, per la Zool. ii. p. 366. t Catal. Fish, iv. p. 358. 



