716 DR. A. GiJNTHER ON FISHES [June 6, 



the form usually known as Cervus verticornis Dawk. The cranial 

 portion of the skull was well preserved ; the antlers had a spread of 

 6 feet, measured in a straight line, and the atlas and axis 

 vertebrae had been found associated with the skull. 



The specimen was of interest, not only from its unusually 

 perfect condition, but as throwing further hght on the characters 

 and affinities of the species, remains of which had been found in 

 large numbers in the I'orest-Bed series, but had usually consisted 

 solely of the basal part of the antlers. The restorations which 

 had been published of the distal portions of the antbrs were quite 

 misleading, and were responsible for the statement commonly made 

 that the antlers of this species are short and thick and that the 

 crown ends in two points. The antlers were, on the contrary, 

 comparable in their general proportions with those of the Fallow 

 Deer and Irish Deer, and ended moreover in a broadly palmated 

 crown, the edge of which was gently scalloped instead of being 

 produced into long snags. The arrangement of the tines and of 

 the palmation agreed closely with that in the species just mentioned, 

 thus confirming the view that the Forest-Bed form was closely 

 related to its ancestors. 



The question of nomenclature was considei-ed, with the result 

 that C. verticornis of the Forest-Bed was probably identical with 

 C. cfirnutorum Laug., and was a synonym of C. belgrandi, Lart. 



This paper will be printed in full in the ' Transactions.' 



The following papers were read : — 



1. An Account of a Collection o£ Fishes made by 

 Mr. R. B. N. Walker, C.M.Z.S., on the Gold Coast. 

 By Dr. A. Gunther, F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



[Beceived April 22, 1899.] 

 (Plates XLI.-XLV.) 



Mr. R. B. N. Walker, C.M.Z.8., to whom we are indebted almost 

 for the first information on the freshwater fishes of the Gaboon 

 country', has brought home a small collection which he formed 

 during a visit to the Gold Coast in the course of last year, and which 

 he has kindly entrusted to me for examination, with instructions to 

 deposit a selection of the specimens in the Natural History 

 Museum. 



The collection, small as it is, proved to be of considerable interest, 

 not only because it contained some forms new to this fauna 



I See Aun. & Mag. N. H. 1867, p. 109. 



