532 Prof. R. H. Traquair — On a new Carboniferous Fish. 



suflScient jiistification for recording tliem as Burdieliouse fossils may- 

 be found in the fact, that two additional specimens of the same fish 

 have been also found by that most indefatigable and successful 

 collector, Mr. Peach, in the quarries of the very place in question.' 



Enumeration of Specimens. — For purposes of reference in the 

 following description, the specimens before me may be numbered 

 and characterized as follows : — 



No. 1. Specimen (Fig. 1, PL XIV). measuring 5f inches in length, 

 and showing the head, body, and caudal region, except the extreme 

 termination of the tail. In the Miller Collection, Edinburgh 

 Museum of Science and Art. 



No. 2. Specimen (Fig. 2, PI. XIV.) 4| inches in length, without 

 head, but showing the greater part of the abdominal region, with 

 the tail up to its very termination. Miller Collection. 



No. 3. Portion of a fish, evidently originally a larger specimen 

 than either of the two preceding. It shows a large portion both 

 of the abdominal and caudal regions, but without either the head or 

 the point of the tail. Length, 4:^ inches. Miller Collection. 



No. 4. A nearly entire specimen, 5^ inches long, somewhat dis- 

 torted, showing a portion of the head and also the extreme termina- 

 tion of the tail, as in No. 2. In the collection of Mr. Peach. 



No. 5. Portion of the caudal region, but without its extreme 

 termination. Length, 3-p'-g- inches. In Mr. Peach's collection. 



Scales. — The body was evidently covered, as in the case of 

 P. Andersoni, with thin and feebly ossified scales, which do not in 

 any case conceal the bones of the prominent internal skeleton. 

 Their exact size and configuration can hardly be accurately dis- 

 tinguished, owing to the state of preservation of the fossils, in 

 which the scales are squeezed together into almost an homogeneous- 

 looking film. As far as I can make out, they seem to have been 

 of moderate size, cycloidal or somewhat rhombo-cycloidal in shape, 

 imbricating in arrangement, and marked with concentric lines, but 

 more especially with fine thread-like longitudinal or slightly radia- 

 ting stride. 



Head. — In specimen No. 1 the head measures 1\ inch in length, 

 and is contained 5| times in the length of the whole specimen as 

 preserved, but the end of the tail being lost, the original proportion 

 would probably be, at least, as 1 to 6|-. In front a portion of bone 

 is seen bearing a smooth, conical, sharp, tooth-like projection, J_ 

 of an inch long. In No. 3 the impression of a large broad operculum 

 is distinctly visible, but in neither of the specimens can the contour 

 of any other of the bones of the head be distinguished, though in 

 places it may be seen that their free surfaces were ornamented with 

 fine ridges. 



Body. — In general form the body must have considerably resem- 

 bled that of Protopterus, being moderately broad in the abdominal 



^ The f"llowing description of the new Carboniferous species formed part of a 

 paper, entitled, "Additions to the Fossil Vertebrate Fauna of Bnrdiebouse, near 

 Edinburgli," rciid before Section C of the British Association, at Edinburgh, 

 August, 1871. 



