60 TRIASSIC FISHES AND PLANTS 
In the collection of fossil fishes left by W.C. Redfield, and among 
hundreds of specimens I have examined from Boonton, Durham, Sunder- 
land, and elsewhere, I have seen but two which correspond with this de- 
scription. These are from Durham, and are contained in a shale that is 
quite metamorphosed, and in which the impressions of the fossils are indis- 
tinct. They are very defective in details of structure, but it is hardly pos- 
sible to avoid the conclusion that they represent a fish different from any 
other known. One of these is represented on Pl. XVIII, Fig. 5; the 
other is larger, though scarcely wider, and the outline is less complete. 
It would be somewhat surprising if it should prove true that in the 
same locality lived two species of the same genus differing in form as 
much as these slender eel-like fishes differ from Catopterus Redfieldi, which, 
when mature, was relatively as broad as a shad. It is therefore quite pos- 
sible that when better specimens of the slender fish shall be found they will 
present points of structure which will require reference to a new genus. 
So far as can be observed, however, they exhibit the characters of Catop- 
terus; the tail is deeply forked, and the caudal, like the pectorals, is bor- 
dered by the fine fulcra so characteristic of that genus; so that, till conflict- 
ing evidence is found, we must follow W. C. Redfield in the name he has 
given. The absence of all details of structure in these fossil fishes is proof 
of great delicacy of organization, such as we find in the young of most 
fishes, but the great length of these specimens forbids the inference that 
they are young fishes, since no traces of larger individuals with anything 
like the same proportions have been discovered. 
CaTorpTerus paRvuLus W. C. R. 
Pl. XVI, Figs. 4, 5. 
The description given of this species by Mr. Redfield will be found in 
the article’ so frequently cited on the preceding pages. It reads as follows: 
Catopterus parvulus: W.C. RB. (Little Catopterus).-—This small and delicate fossil is 
but obscurely developed in the few specimens which have been obtained. The ex- 
tremely fine spread caudal and other fins, with their slender frontal raylets, serve to 
1Am., Jour. Sci., vol. 41, 1841. 
