116 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
particularly a large number of the curious forms which approach 
very nearly to the mammals in structure, and probably were the 
ancestors of that group. Besides these the Amphibia are represented 
by the Labyrinthodonts, in which the complicated infolding of the 
enamel of the crowns of the teeth is a characteristic feature. A 
beautiful specimen of the skull of a small Labyrinthodont (Bothriceps 
hualeyt, Lydekker) from this region has recently been presented to 
the Natural History Museum by Mr. Distant, who received it from 
Mr. Robert Marley, who found it in the Berg districts near Natal. 
Nearly all the hard rock in which it was originally embedded has 



BoTuRicErs HUXLEYI Lydekker (about two-thirds nat. size). 
weathered away from the upper surface of the skull (see fig.), so that 
the peculiar sculpture of the roofing bones, the nearly terminal 
nostrils, the orbits, and the well-developed opening for the median 
pineal eye are well shown. Specimens such as this, lying loose on the © 
surface, and more or less weathered out of the hard matrix in which 
they were embedded, are probably not uncommon in many localities 
in South Africa, but for the most part they are overlooked and 
neglected. A collector who, like Mr. Robert Marley, would look out 
for nodules showing traces of such weathered-out skulls and bones 
might well find specimens which would add materially to our know- 
ledge of the extraordinarily interesting extinct vertebrate fauna of 
South Africa—Crartes W. AnpREws (British Museum). 

