FOSSIL FISHES, 47 
Paleoniscus. The comparative breadth of this species with the smallness of its scales 
will also readily distinguish it from its American congeners. ‘The scales of the anterior 
portion of the body are deeper in proportion to their length than in any other species 
unless in P. ovatus. 
The figure given of this species by J. H. Redfield was taken from a 
specimen which has unfortunately been lost. I have not been able 
to find in the Redfield collection the original of this figure; it probably 
belonged to the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and was burned 
with the rest of its collections. The lack of it has made the identification 
of the species difficult. There are, however, no small, short, and broad fishes 
found at the localities enumerated by Mr. Redfield that agree at all well 
with his figure and description. 
At Sunderland, Mass., and Plainfield, N. J., we have obtained a few 
small ovoid fishes which correspond better than any others with the definition 
of J. latus. These fishes have about the dimensions assigned to this species by 
J. H. Redfield, viz, a length of four to five inches and a width of one and a 
half; the head is relatively small and pointed, the scales of the dorsal line 
are prominent, and the broad shield-shaped scale which covers the base of 
the dorsal fin is relatively very large—as large, indeed, as in any of the large 
species of the genus—and is notched behind where it touches the first of the 
fulcra. The fins are all small and weak, the body immediately anterior to 
the caudal fin is narrowed to about one-third of the breadth between the 
head and dorsal, the scales are relatively small and crowded, eighteen in a 
vertical row between the median lines of back and abdomen in the broadest 
part of the fish. Of these, the six lower are small, square, and of nearly 
uniform size; the seventh row is the beginning of a series consisting of eight, 
which are higher than long, the middle ones near the head being just twice 
as high as broad; above these higher scales are four rows of smaller square 
ones, of which the uppermost is excavated to fit the rounded base of the 
great spined scale which stands at the head of the row. 
These little fishes I have supposed might represent Mr. Redfield’s 
species, but I have found none at Boonton or Durham which I could associate 
‘with them. At Boonton a somewhat similar species (J. elegans) is not un- 
common, but that is larger, has smaller dorsal scales, and a more arched back. 
