PEOF. E. EAT LANKESTEB ON LEPIDOSIEEN AND PEOTOPTEEUS. 23 



up of successive segments — the separate cartilages being divided by connective tissue. 

 The fore limb in this specimen was very small and flattened. 



This specimen was also sent by Senhor Barbosa Rodriguez to Prof. Giglioli. He 

 obtained it from Igarape do Aterro, Manaos, Amazons, where its native name is 

 " Piramboia." 



Senhor Rodriguez recorded the capture of this specimen in the ' Jornal do Commercio,' 

 of Rio de Janeiro, 15th November, 1886, and while furnishing the reader with a rough 

 but characteristic figure (which would enable an up-country naturalist to recognize 

 specimens should they come to hand), spoke of it as Lepidosiren gigliolana, n. sp. 



This specimen is a female, and is (as compared with Bohls's Paraguayan specimens) 

 singularly light-coloured. It is of a clear brown. I have, however, little doubt that 

 the paleness of colour is due to the prolonged action of sunlight and of the spirit used 

 as preservative. 



The Vienna Specimen (Natterer's original). — It was a rare pleasure to be able to 

 handle one of the two specimens which fifty years ago were brought to Europe by 

 the celebrated traveller Natterer, and were the first indication to zoologists of the 

 existence of the group of Dipnoi, since expanded by the discovery of Protopterus and 

 Ceratodus and of many Palaeozoic allies. 



The specimen kindly sent to me by Dr. Steindachner was in beautiful condition, in 

 spite of its fifty years' sojourn in spirit. Like Castelnau's and Giglioli's specimens, it 

 is a clear brown and not greenish black, as are Bohls's specimens from Paraguay. 

 Probably this is due to long soaking in spirit (see Bohls's remarks, cited above, as to 

 the pigment of his specimens). The length of this specimen was 58 cm., its head- 

 length 5-5 cm., the inter-membral length 31 cm., the post-membral length 22 cm., and 

 the cervico-dorsal length 16 cm. There were no villi on the pelvic fin. I did not 

 determine the sex. I opened the integument of both a pectoral and a pelvic fin, and 

 found that the skeletal axis was built up of separate articulated segments as in 

 Prof. Giglioli's two specimens and as in the three Paraguayan specimens which I 

 have examined for the determination of this point. This specimen came from Madeira, 

 Amazons. 



Summary of Results of Examination of the Amazonian Lepidosiren. — Of the five 

 specimens of Amazonian Lepidosiren which exist in Europe (for we may exclude the 

 small Lisbon skin in the Jardin des Plantes) I have examined three in regard to the 

 articulation of the skeletal axis of the limbs, and have found that that axis is in all 

 segmented. Of the two remaining specimens, one (Natterer's dissected by Bischoff ) 

 has now lost the hinder limbs, the other (Castelnau's) remains for reference; for 

 .although I examined it and took measurements, I did not cut into the integument of 

 the limbs. 



I have not seen a Paraguayan Lepidosiren with non-segmented or non-articulated 

 .skeletal limb-axis, and it is desirable that Prof. Ehlers should clsa.rly say whether he 



