748 General Notes. 
elements: (1), an interneural spine ; (2), an intercalary bone (or 
aseost) which has the shape of two wings; and (3), a spinous ray. 
A division of the disk of Echeneis has also three elements; the 
lower extremities of the interneutrals point backwards instead of 
forwards; the intercalary bone is formed of wing-like plates, and 
the spinous ray is represented by a pair of pectinated lamelle joined 
in the median line and occupying the whole surface of the disk. 
The upper expanded portions of the interneural spines each carry a 
pair of lamelle. The wing-like plates of the intercalary bone are 
connected by a narrow portion which expands in the middle and 
rests partly on the interneurals, and the wing-like parts of the. 
consecutive intercalary bones overlap one another like the tiles of a 
house. The pectinated lamelle are discovered by M. Storms as 
transversely enlarged spines, and he believes that the bases of the 
spines alone have formed the lamellæ, and that the spine proper 
was gradually reduced until it has nearly disappeared. e rows 
of small teeth which cover the posterior margins of the lamelle are 
by M. Storms thought to be of dermal origin. That they are not 
formed by outgrowth of the bone is proved by the facility with 
which they fall off by prolonged maceration. ‘The fossil Hehenew 
glaronensis, the disk of which extends only on to the posterior part 
of the head, instead of covering its whole surface, seems to support 
our author’s supposition that the disk was originally formed on the 
dorsal region, and has migrated gradually to its present position. 
REPTILES AND Barracuta.—Dr. O. P. Hay’s list of Amphibia 
and Reptilia at present known to occur in the State of Indiana 
includes seventy-seven species, twenty-seven of which are Batra- 
chia. ; 
Dr. A. Günther (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1888) describes 
seventeen new species of snakes from tropical ‘Africa, including 
soidea, Simocephalus, Psammophis, Uriechis, Calamelaps, 
Elapomorphus, also Rhinocalamus dimidiatus, new genus an 
Following the above paper Dr. Günther contributes a 
snakes known from the lake-districts of Central Africa, and shows 
what is known of their distribution on the east and west § 
The difficulties attending the carriage of natural history gree 
in Central Africa is so great, that it is only within the last The 
ears that small collections of snakes have reached Europe. ttee, 
ist contains forty-six distinct forms obtained at Lado, Man 
and Semmio, on the great Central African lakes southward alae 
. been 
and on the highlands of Ugogo. Of these, twenty-two es 
