20 TRIASSIC FISHES AND PLANTS. 
four species of Catopterus were described, viz: C. gracilis J. H. R., C. ma- 
crurus W.C. R, C. anguilliformis W. C. R., and C. parvulus W. C. Rt 
In 1854 Mr. J. H. Redfield read to the Association of American 
Geologists and Naturalists a paper entitled “A Catalogue of the Fossil 
Fishes of the United States as far as Known, with Descriptions of Those 
Found in the New Red Sandstone.” In this paper four species of Catopterus 
and nine species of Palconiscus were enumerated; of the latter four, viz, 
P. clupeiformis, P. rostratus, P. tenuis, and P. parvus, had not been before de- 
scribed. This report has never been published, because, as I was informed 
by Mr. W. C. Redfield, it was agreed between Professor Agassiz and himself 
that the whole subject should be reviewed in a joint monograph. Unfortu- 
nately this was not done, and the death of Mr. Redfield in 1857 prevented 
further publication of the large amount of valuable information which he 
had acquired on this subject. 
In 1847 Sir Charles Lyell published a paper* on the Coal Field of 
Eastern Virginia, in which he gave some notes on the fossil fishes he ob- 
tained there, with two beautiful plates, drawn by Joseph Dinkel. These 
notes also include the results of an examination of these fishes by Sir Philip 
Egerton, who reported (1) that the fish described by W. C. Redfield under 
the name of Catopterus macrurus should be considered the representative of 
anew genus “ because it was homocereal,” and he called it Dictyopyge ; (2) 
that the fishes from the American Trias referred by Agassiz and Redfield to 
Paleoniscus were generically distinct, and he named the new genus which 
he created to receive them Ischypterus, because of the great strength of the 
fin rays. Sir Philip Egerton also decided that some of the specimens of 
Catopterus brought back by Sir Charles Lyell were different from C. gracilis, 
and suggested the name of C. Redfieldi for one of them. 
A portion of the middle of the body of a large fish with quadrangular 
seales which Sir Charles Lyell brought from Blackheath, Va., he referred to 
the genus Tetragonolepis, but on scarcely satisfactory grounds. 
Taking up the study of the fishes of the Trias soon after coming to New 
York in 1866, [had excavations made at Boonton, N. J., from which many 
hundreds of fishes were obtained, in circumstances which apparently throw 
1Am. Jour. Sei., vo]. 41, 1841, p. 24. 
?Quart. J ur. Geol. Soe, London, vol. 3, 1847, p. 261. 
