120 GANOID FISHES OF THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION. 
In 1877 I imagined that I had discovered a new species of Nematoptychius from the 
Gilmerton Ironstone, which I named J. gracilis. The specimen, in the Royal Scottish 
Museum, is a small fish nine inches in length and differing from the typical Greenocki 
principally in the more distant articulations of the fin-rays and in the more regularly 
tapering form of the teeth. Enlightened by experience I came, however, to look upon 
the first supposed diagnostic mark to be a sign of youth, and to put no weight on the 
second. Accordingly in 1890 I cancelled the species. 
C. W. Peach’s ‘“ Pygopterus elegans,’ founded on some dentigerous bones from 
Loanhead, now in the Royal Scottish Museum, is clearly a synonym of Nematoptychius 
Greenock. 
The predaceous habits of the larger Palaeoniscidée are well illustrated by a specimen 
of Nematoplychius Greenocki from the Borough Lee Ironstone in my own collection, in 
the abdominal cavity of which the remains of a good-sized Acanthodes are distinctly 
recognisable. ‘Ihis phenomenon is also frequently exhibited by large specimens of 
Rhabdolepis macropterus, a Lower Permian Paleeoniscid common in the ironstone nodules 
of Saarbriicken and Lebach im Rhenish Prussia. In all these cases the Acanthodes was 
swallowed head foremost, as is shown by the position of its remains in the body of the 
larger fish. This must necessarily have been so, as in any other position its formidable 
spines would have proved an insuperable obstacle to its being swallowed at all. 
Geological Position and Localities —Nematoplychius Greenochi is one of the most 
common and widely distributed of all the estuarine fishes of the Lower Carboniferous 
rocks of the East of Scotland, occurring as it does in almost every fish-bearing bed of that 
category from the Wardie Shales to the Upper Limestone Series. | Beginning with the 
lowest horizon in which its remains occur, we note its appearance first in the— 
Calciferous Sandstone Series: Common in the ironstone nodules washed out of the 
shales at Wardie Beach. Burdiehouse Limestone, Burdiechouse, and Burntisland. Shales 
on the sea coast at Gullane, Kast Lothian. Roof of “ Dunnet”’ Shale and “ Broxburn ” 
Shale at Straiton near Burdiehouse; also at Oakbank and West Calder. Pitcorthy near 
Anstruther, Fifeshire. 
Lower Limestone Series: Gilmerton Ironstone at Venturefair Pit, Gilmerton. 
idge Coal Series: Loanhead Ironstone, No. 1, at Loanhead and West Edge. 
Borough Lee Ironstone, or Loanhead No. 2, at Borough Lee and Loanhead. Lower 
Possil Ironstone, Possil, Lanarkshire. Wallyford near Musselburgh. 
Upper Limestone Series: Roof Shale of “South Parrot’ Coal seam, at Niddrie 
near Edinburgh. 
In 1875 I mentioned the occurrence of a maxilla of W. Greenocki in the Coal 
Measures of Shawfair near Dalkeith. I have seen reason, however, to believe that the 
specimen in question came from the Edge Coal Series at Wallyford, and that consequently 
there is as yet no record of the genus in Upper Carvoniferous rocks. 
