THECODONTIA. 283 



reptiles, characteristic of triassic time, have been discovered. 

 The remains of the large reptile, with pitted bony dermal 

 scales, had been, on their first discovery, referred to a genus 

 of fishes by Agassiz, under the name of Stagonohjns, or "pitted- 

 scale," probably from the belief that the formation belonged 

 to the " Old Eed System." I determined the crocodilian 

 nature of the scales, and the affinity of the reptile to the 

 Thecodonts, in the breadtli of the coracoid or pubis as shewn 

 by the cast of the bone, at the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion at Leeds, in September 1858. T have since been favoured 

 by Mr. P. Duff, of Elgin, with a tooth. It is " thecodont" in 

 character, like that of Cladyodon, and is associated with scales 

 of Stagonolepis : which, by the confluence of the pits into 

 irregular channels, radiating towards the margin, present a 

 labyrinthodont character. 



In the same sandstone, in the quarry at Cummingstone, 

 near Elgin, a continuous series of thirty-four foot-prints have 

 been observed. The impressions are in pairs, forming two 

 parallel rows, the hind one being one inch in diameter. 



I had some years before determined the true saurian 

 nature of the impression of the skeleton of the trunk and part 

 of the head of a small reptile discovered by Mr. Duff at 

 Spynie, and noticed by him in the "Elgin Courant"' of 

 October 10th, 1851, as evidence of an air-breathing vertebrate 

 in " Old Eed Sandstone." The specimen was submitted by 

 Mr. Duff to my examination, the result of which was given, 

 December 15, 1851, in the * Literary Gazette " of that week, 

 as follows : — 



u It is the impression, in two pieces, of a grey variety of 

 the old red sandstone, of a long and slender four-footed 

 vertebrate animal, four inches and a half in length, clearly 

 belonging, by the form, proportions, and positions of the 

 scapular and pelvic arches, and their appended limbs, to the 

 reptilian class. The osseous substance has disappeared : the 



