2 DEVONIAN FAUNA. 



F.R.S., Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., Professor T. McKenny Hughes, F.R.S., Mr. 

 J. G. Hamling, F.G.S., and their colleagues my grateful thanks are due. To 

 Mr. Hamling and Miss Partridge, of Barnstaple, I am also under obligations for the 

 loan of specimens from their private collections, and for helping me to collect fossils 

 in the field; my friend Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., has also visited many localities 

 with me, both collecting fossils and making observations, the result of which we 

 propose to give in the sequel. One day, while working in the Barnstaple Athenaeum, 

 a gentleman, Mr. Porter, of Pilton, then unknown to me, invited me to see his collec- 

 tion, made through many years; and after showing me his fossils he presented 

 them to me, unsolicited, for the purpose of this work. The generosity of this gift 

 can best be acknowledged by referring the reader to the accompanying plates. 



Professor Rupert Jones, F.R.S., Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., Dr. J. W. 

 Gregory, F.G.S., Mr. A. Smith Woodward, F.G.S., Mr. F. A. Bather, F.G.S., 

 Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., Mr. H. A. Allen, F.G.S., Mr. G. C. Crick, F.G.S., 

 and other kind friends have most kindly helped me in guiding me toward 

 the identification of certain of the species ; and Mr, W. Rupert Jones, Sub- 

 Librarian of the Geological Society, has shown his usual kindness in helping me 

 to solve perplexing questions of bibliography. 



I regret that in the folio wiug descriptions ^ so much has often to be left in doubt. 

 Many of the specimens available are casts, many fragmentary, many embedded in 

 matrix, and very many distorted, and sometimes crushed completely out of shape. 

 Probably from such causes errors may in some cases have occurred. It is to be 

 hoped that these may hereafter be corrected through the discovery of more perfect 

 fossils. I can only claim to have done my best to be careful, and to have sought, 

 wherever it was possible, to identify specimens with previously described forms. 

 The present evidence, however, shows that the fauna of these beds is rich and 

 varied, and I believe that we have by no means yet reached the limit of the species 

 that occur in them. 



I also regret that some of the localities given are necessarily vague. 

 "Barnstaple" and "Pilton" must be taken as general terms, not indicating a 

 precise spot. Many of the older specimens in museums only bear such general 

 labels. Mr. Porter's fossils were, 1 understand, for the most part obtained from 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Pilton, but the very richness of the collection 

 prevented me in most cases from learning the exact localities of the various 



^ In the descriptions I have been accustomed to group comparisons with other species under the 

 title of ^'Affinities." It seemed to me a convenient general term, under which points of likeness 

 might be noted without necessarily betokening relationship. As, however, some German authors 

 have criticised me for having sometimes compared species which have only a superficial resemblance, 

 it is as well to observe that I did so intentionally, and that I shall continue to do so wherever it may 

 seem advantageous. 



