244 MESSRS. HANCOCK AND HOWSE 



described by Count Miinster in the same work (Heft v., p. 44, 

 tab. v., i\ 2), under the name of Platysomus Althausii, belong 

 also to the genus Dorypierus, and to the same species as the one 

 described by Prof. Germar. But in order to establish more 

 satisfactorily the strict identity of these with the English speci- 

 mens, it seems necessary to reproduce the original descriptions 

 given by Prof. Germar and Count Miinster. 



Dorypterus Hoffmanni, Germar (Beitrage, Heft v., pp. 35-37). 

 " This specimen was found only last autumn (1840) in the Kup- 

 ferschiefer of the Eisleben district; and, although it is not perfect 

 enough to ascertain all its essential parts, yet it presents so many 

 peculiar characters that the establishment of a distinct genus be- 

 comes necessary. As generic characters one can point out : — 

 an oval profile and a body flattened on the sides, with a distinct 

 bony skeleton ; a very high and spit-shaped dorsal fin ; pectoral 

 fin placed in the mid-height of the body, behind the gill-cover ; 

 the small, narrow ventral fins in the middle of the ventral mar- 

 gin ; and a fork-shaped, equal-lobed tail. 



" The whole length of the fish, from the tail-fin to the front of 

 the jaws, is three inches seven lines ; its height, without the 

 fins, one inch eleven lines ; the height of the dorsal two inches, 

 its breadth in the middle one line. The head, broadly ovate, 

 has a nearly semicircular outline ; the under jaws are much bent 

 upwards ; and also the front and the nose seem much bent down- 

 wards. It occupies nearly one-third of the body ; and the jaws 

 do not appear to have borne teeth. The backbone has a few 

 more than thirty joints, of which about seventeen belonged to 

 the ventral vertebrae ; but the number of the vertebrae cannot be 

 distinctly reckoned. 



" Satisfactory information cannot be given respecting the pec- 

 toral fins. Behind the gill-covers a somewhat waved ribbon- 

 shaped organ runs in a sloping direction backwards to the ventral 

 margin, which perhaps might be the humerus ; and at its root 

 one sees some bones which one is inclined to take for the roots 

 of the pectoral rays. But this ribbon-shaped organ is provided 

 with distinct parallel longitudinal striae, and itself resembles a 

 pectoral fin ; and those bones we took for roots of the pectoral 



