1898.] MESSES. HOl.T A^D BTENE OIT LEPADOGASTEB. 589 



and the deer escaped, to be devoured by the famine-stricken 

 peasantry. I fear that none are left ; but will make further in- 

 quiry when I return to my post next year. It is strange that none 

 have been found wild in Kashgaria, which is said by a Chinese 

 author of the early part of the last century to be the native country 

 of this peculiar deer, which they call the ' Ssu pii hsiang,' or 

 ' Four unlikes.' " 



Prof. G. B. Howes exhibited a series of embryos and 5 living 

 eggs of the Tuatera, Sphenodon jnaictatus, which he had received 

 from Prof. A. Dendy of Christchurcb, N.Z. The embryos were 

 part of a full series, obtained from Stephen's Island in Cook's 

 Straits, which had furnished Prof. Dendy with material for a 

 monograph on the general development of the animal, now in 

 course of publication ; and the eggs were the survivors of a series 

 of six from the same locality, one having died on Isov. 13. The 

 material had been sent to Prof. Howes for the express purpose of 

 working out the development of the skeleton. Prof. Howes directed 

 attention to the interest attaching to that undertaking, in con- 

 sideration of the central position of the species among terrestrial 

 vertebrata, and briefly recapitulated the more important discoveries 

 already announced by Dendy, v\ ith especial reference to the presence 

 of an amniotic tube and of a third pair of incisor teeth, and to the 

 occlusion of the olfactory passages during development. 



Messrs. E. W. L. Holt and L. ^Y. Byrne, F.Z.S., exhibited speci- 

 mens and drawings of a small sucker-fish of the j^euus Lepadogaster 

 considered to represent an undescribed species, for which they pro- 

 posed the name L. stictopteryx. 



This species was closely related to L. bimaculatus (Donov.), from 

 which it could not be clearly distinguished by the radial formula 

 alone. Distinctive characters of constant value seemed to be the 

 more lateral position of the eyes and the diflferent shape of the 

 head, which was squarer in front than that of L. himacidatiis, com- 

 bined ^^ith the elongation of the trunk and tail and the fleshy 

 character of the anterior dorsal rays. Large specimens were 

 readily distinguished by conspicuous dark spots on the dorsal and 

 anal fins, which seemed to be constant in preserving media, though 

 altered somewhat in tone ; these markings were not exhibited by 

 young examples. The body was of a varying shade of olive, which 

 might be diversified by small browTi specks and short white cross- 

 bars and lines. 



The specimens exhibited were 3 large individuals measuring from 

 33-37 mm. in length exclusive of the caudal fin, some small ex- 

 amples, newly hatched young, and some ova — all from Plymouth. 

 The National collection contained a fine specimen of the same 

 species from Loch Craignish in Argyllshire, at present labelled 

 L. bimaculatus. 



At Plymouth the habitat of L. stictopteryx appeared to be more 

 littoral than that of L. bimacidatus, and the ova had been found in 



