898.] PBOF. HOWES oy aksbxtina siLua, 49;j 



Mr. D. O'Connor had supplied the following information on the 

 Ceratodus : — 



" Some ben or twelve years ago the late Sir Ferdinand von Mueller 

 and other scientific men of Australia wei-e apprehensive that Gera- 

 tochis was likely to become extinct, mainly owing to their being 

 largely destroyed by settlers and miners, who highly esteemed them 

 as an article ot diet. They were mostly killed by dynamite, a very 

 destructive agent. The curious fact was also noted that no small 

 specimens of Ceratodus were ever seen ; two of those in your 

 gardens are the smallest I ever met with, excepting a stuffed 

 specimen which measured 21 inches. The Koyal Society of 

 Queensland, with a view to the preservation of Ceratodus, 

 resolved to remove specimens to new habitats. I w;is asked to 

 undertake the work. My first month's experience was very 

 discouraging, resulting in only one live fish, but better success 

 foilovved and in less than six months sixty-nine fishes were trans- 

 ported to six 2iew localities. This success eucouraged me to try 

 the expei'iment of taking a few to England. I bad some caught 

 and kept in captivity a few weeks and fed mainly on prawns. 

 They were shipped in the ' Duke of Devonshire ' on the 15th 

 April, and arrived in London on the 12th June, after a passage of 

 eight weeks. My success was niaiidy owing to the exceptionally 

 fine weather enjoyed throughout the voyage, there not being an 

 hour rough between the Brisbane fiiver and the Thames. 



" The native name of Ceratodus is ' Teebine '; the settlers on the 

 Burnett call it salmon on account of its red flesh : on the Mary 

 River it is known as ' Barramundi'; but this name is incorrectly 

 given to several species of large freshwater fishes, it belongs rightly 

 to Oiteotjlossum leichardti." 



Mr. Boulenger exhibited specimens of Polypterus lapradii Stdlf., 

 from the Lower Congo, provided with much developed external 

 opercular gills as first described by Steindachner. One of these 

 specimens measured 260 millim., thus exceeding by 30 millim. 

 the largest hitherto recorded with persistent external gills. Mr. 

 Boulenger had previously shown that the presence of these gills 

 was not actually dependent on age, still less confined to the " larva " 

 as stated by Bashford Dean, since out of three quite young Polypterus 

 palmas Ayres, of the same size, one only was possessed of them. 

 The fact that they persisted in what might be described as half- 

 grown specimens rendered it probable that they were retained 

 throughout life in certain individuals, as we kuuw to be the case 

 in some of our common Newts. 



Mr. E. p]. Holding made some remarks on some interesting 

 aniujals he had observed during a recent visit to the Zoological 

 Gardens at Belle V'ue, Manchester. 



Prof. Howes exhibited, on behalf of Mr. E. W. L. Holt, 

 Paoc. ZooL. Sue— 1808, No. XXXILI. 33 



