68 GANOID FISHES OF THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION. 



{hm.) is shown, as well as nearly the whole of the palatoquadrate apparatus [pt.) and the 

 articulation of the mandible. The right ramus of the mandible is shown in the figure 

 just below the palatopterygoid apparatus, but is unfortunately not lettered; wi;^' represents, 

 however, the ramus of the opposite side. Lastly, e is the swper ethmoidal, and o. an otolith. 



Fio". 3 of the same plate represents a maxilla magnified about two diameters. It is 

 of the usual form, and has its broad portion ornamented externally by fine ridges, not 

 very closely placed, often wavy, but for the most part parallel with the superior and pos- 

 terior borders of the bone. 



Fig. 1 is a restored figure of the entire fish, constructed entirely from a series of 

 specimens from Wardie in my private collection. 



Specimens conforming to this type occur in the Calciferous Sandstone series, likewise 

 at Burdiehouse and Straiton in Midlothian, at South Queensferry and Dechmont in 

 Linlithgowshire, and at Burntisland and Pitcorthy in Fife. The fish from Burdiehouse 

 (PI. VIII, fig. 1), which I described in 1877 as Elonichthys ovatus, is, as I have now no 

 doubt, an example of this form with the body shortened up by distortion. To these 

 must also be added the specimens from the cannel coals and ironstones of the 

 Carboniferous Limestone series of the Forth Basin, whicli I once thought entitled to be 

 considered as a distinct variety, to which I gave the name " ajinis,^^ as the fins seemed 

 to be rather smaller and composed of fewer rays. One of these, from Wallyford, near 

 Musselburgh, in the British Museum Collection, is represented in PI. X, fig. 5 ; and 

 similar specimens are, or were, of common occurrence in the Gilmerton Ironstone, in the 

 Borough Lee or No. 2 Ironstone, Loanhead, and in the Denhead Ironstone, Fife. 



The only difference between the forms intermedins and striolatus is the greater 

 distance in the former of the transverse articulations of the fin-rays — a distinction which 

 is, however, not specifically valid, as intermediate conditions in this respect are not 

 uncommon, especially in specimens from the Dunnet Shale at Straiton. 



A few large specimens from Straiton (Dunnet Shale), one of which must have 

 measured, when entire, nearly one foot in length, show ornate scale markings resembling 

 those of " BucJcIandi," while the striation of the facial bones is remarkably close. The 

 joints of the fin-rays are, however, in the condition of those in the ordinary " intermedins!' 



c. Variation nemopterus. — This is the '^ Amhlijijterus''' nemopteriis of Agassiz, founded 

 on a specimen from Wardie which belonged to the late Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, but is 

 now in the British Museum Collection. PI. XVII, fig. 11, represents the counterpart 

 of the same specimen, the details being somewhat more realistically rendered than was 

 done by Agassiz's artist. Other specimens from Wardie and Straiton agreeing essen- 

 tially with Agassiz's type are in the Edinburgh Museum and in my own collection. The 

 salient points of this form are the highly acuminate shape of the dorsal and anal fins, 

 the comparative fineness of the rays, and the relative distance of their transverse articu- 

 lations, which in the front part of the fins are so far apart as to render the joints about 

 three times as long as broad. Even in the pectoral (fig. 12) the articulations are 



