Notice of a Neiv Ganoid Fish. 



273 



(2 ) Notice of a New Genus of Ganoid Fish allied io the Genus 

 Polypterus t^Geoff.-St-Hillaire), recently received from Old Calabar. 

 By John Alexander Smith, M.D. (Specimens exhibited.) 



The two specimens of fish exhibited, were sent to me 

 with the Tetraodon just described, and some other zoological 

 specimens, by the Eev. Alexander Eobb, of the Calabar 

 Mission ; and in a letter, dated 28th October 1864, in which 

 he announces the sending of the package, he states, " There 

 are two or three small eel-like fishes." I have written to 

 Mr Eobb for more information, and hope to be able to de- 

 scribe these curious fishes more fully before long. The}' have 

 been caught, I believe, in the fresh water of the river near 

 Creek Town, Old Calabar, where the Eev. Mr Eobb resides ; 

 and they probably live at the bottom of the river, in the soft 

 mud ; from both the specimens exhibited being pierced im- 

 mediately behind the head, they seem to have been strung 

 on a stick by the native who had captured them, and were 

 doubtless intended to have formed part of his next meal, as 

 Dr Hewan informs me the natives have a practice of this 

 kind, and a taste for a varied diet, eating all sorts of fish 

 however small. 



The fish belong to the interesting Order of Ganoid fishes, 

 and appear to be closely allied to the Genus Polypterus of 

 Geoffroy-St-Hillaire, which, with the Genera, or rather 

 Families of Lepidosteus and Amia, include the living repre- 

 sentatives of the numerous fossil fish, the ganoids of the 

 earlier geological epochs. 



The species of Lepidosteus or bony pikes, and Amia, are 

 found in the fresh waters, the rivers, and lakes of North 

 and South America. Of the Genus Polypterus, two species 

 were referred to by Agassiz in his " Poissons Fossiles ;" he 

 fully describes the P. bichir, the Bicliir of the Nile, and 

 notices the P. senegalus, from the river Senegal. Since 

 the publication of Agassiz's great work several other species 

 of this genus have been discovered : one, the P. End- 

 licheri, in the White Nile, described in 1849 ; and another, in 

 1857, from the rivers at Cape Palmas, on the western coast 



