76 



May 28. 1839. 



William Ogilby, Esq., in the Chair. 



A letter from C. B. Bidwell, Esq., dated Sierra Leone, February 

 22, 1839, was read. It stated that Mr. Bidwell had forwarded for 

 the Society's museum the skull of a Hippopotamus, and skins of 

 four species of monkey. "The Hippopotamus," says Mr. Bidwell, 

 " is not found in the Sierra Leone River, but is very abundant in the 

 Scarcies, which is about fifty miles distant." 



A paper from the Rev. R. T. Lowe, entitled " A Supplement to a 

 synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira*," was read. 



Fam. Percid^. 



Genus Callanthias. 



Gen. char. — Head scaly, except the short muzzle before the eyes ; 

 teeth as in Anthias, Bl. ; preopercle perfectly entire ; opercle with 

 two flat adpressed spines ; lateral line high up, near the back, and 

 ending at the end of the dorsal fin, which is even or continuous ; 

 branchiostegous membrane with six rays. 



Callanthias paradis^us. A most elegant little fish ; in general 

 habit and colouring resembling Anthias sacer, BL, but without the 

 produced third spine of the dorsal fin. Its analogies are singularly 

 complicated, but its affinities are truly Percidous. By Bloch it might 

 have been arranged either in Bodianits or Cephalopholis, Bl., but it is 

 really inadmissible into any well-defined or constituted modern ge- 

 nus. It is almost as rare as beautiful. 



Fam. Bertcid^. 



Genus Beryx, Cuv. 



Beryx decadactylus, Cuv. B. corpore ovali. Into, profunda, 

 altitudine longitudinem capitis superante ; dorso elevato, arciiato, 

 gibbo ; ventre prominente : basi pinna dorsalis elongato, pinnis 

 pectoralibus hand breviore : oculis maxiniis : operculi angusti ca- 

 rina obscura : esse humerali angusto, margine posteriore recto, 

 verticali. 

 D. 4 + 18-20 ; Vs. 1 4- 10 ; &c. 

 B. decadactylus, Cuv. and Val., Hist. III. 222. 

 B. splendens, nob. quoad icon. Tab. III. in Cam. Phil. Trans., 

 Vol. VI. Part 1 ; baud textus. 



When I published B. splendens as a new species in the Cambridge 

 Transactions, I was unacquainted with the present fish, though it is 

 scarcely perhaps less common than the former. I consequently did 



* See Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. ii. p. ITS, 



