406 FOSSIL FISH. 



after long reasoning, to make it a lost species of the genus 

 Uranoscopus. This allocation, however, is totally wrong; 

 it is only sufficient to compare the figure which he has given 

 with that of the Centriscus scolopax, to see the close affinity 

 between the two species ; it should, however, perhaps, be sepa- 

 rated from the latter in consequence of the form of the head, 

 supposing that it was entire, and especially because the large 

 sting of the first dorsal is much longer and more forward, 

 without a trace of any other, and the ventral fins are also 

 nearer to the head. 



Sygnathus. S, typhis. Respecting this impression, about 

 a foot in length, in which no traces of fins (except the caudal, 

 which has all the characters of the genus) are to be found, no 

 doubt can possibly exist ; it is evidently a species of Sygna- 

 thus, and most probably the one above-named, which is found 

 in very great abundance in the Mediterranean. The anterior 

 part of the head, terminated by a long point, formed by the 

 vomer, proves that this fish must have undergone a consider- 

 able alteration before it was engaged in the stone. 



S. breviculus. Evidently a species of Sygnathus. The 

 muzzle is greatly elongated, the mouth very small, the lower 

 jaw longer than the upper, and the body polygonous and cata- 

 phracted ; no trace of fins is to be seen except that of the tail, 

 and an indication of very small pectoral fins. This fossil has 

 been considered identical with the Pegasus volans ; but the 

 body of the latter is much more elongated, and the form of the 

 muzzle totally different. 



M. Volta has referred to Pegasus volans another fossil impres- 

 sion, which, as far as it can be made out, bears no sort of resem- 

 blance to that fish. So little is this the case, that it must be 

 concluded that this author never saw the fish to which he has 

 compared the fossil, nor even a figure of it. The specimen, 

 however, is far too much mutilated to permit any determina- 

 tion of its genus or species. His Pegasus lesiniformis is not 

 exactly in the same predicament, because the impression is 



