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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



In the Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 

 Volume 37, 1909, Professor Oliver P. Hay, discusses the nature 

 of the fossil sharks, with tooth-like structures, known as Edestus, 

 with a description of a new species and a new genus, Toxoprion. 

 Dr. Hay regards these, not as teeth, but as a succession of spines 

 or spinal structures in front of the dorsal fin, and used as 

 weapons of offense. 



In the Proceedings of the National Museum, Volume 36, 1909, 

 Professor John O. Snyder describes new genera and species of 

 fishes obtained on the voyage of the "Albatross," in 1906, on 

 the Coast of Japan and the Riu Kiu Islands. 



In the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Volume 52, 

 1909, Barton A. Bean and Alfred C. Weed discusses the life his- 

 tory of the Alaskan fresh-water sculpin. Col/us asper. These 

 little fishes are extremely greedy and destroy great numbers 

 of salmon eggs. 



The British Museum has published the first volume of an 

 elaborate catalogue of the fresh-water fishes of Africa, by Dr. 

 George Albert Boulenger. The first volume contains the 

 Mormyrida 1 , the Characinidae, and part of the Cyprinidae, with 

 a number of minor families. The book is well printed, and 

 each of the species is represented by a good plate. 



In Zoologica, for 1909, Mr. Edward Phelps Allis, Jr., pub- 

 lishes a most elaborate account of the anatomy of certain mail- 

 cheeked fishes, fifteen species being represented in his studies, 

 and the bony structure of each of these described with a degree 

 of fullness not hitherto shown in any papers on the osteology 

 of fishes. This piece of work is accompanied by admirable en- 

 gravings. The only suggestion which could arise by way of 

 criticism is that not nearly all the types of the mail-cheeked 

 fishes are represented, and that a full comparative study in 

 which all of them would be considered might lead to results 

 which can not flow from merely descriptive work on a part of 

 a large and varied group. 



In the Publications of the Department of Fisheries of New 

 South Wales, for 1908, David G. Stead discusses the beaked 

 salmon, (ionorhyndi us, and its distribution in Australia. 



In the same publications, Mr. Stead describes a number of new 

 species of fish from the coasts of New South Wales. 



In the Annals of Queensland Museum, Number 9, for 1908, 

 Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby describes a number of new species and 

 genera from the coast of Queensland. 



