8 Rose, on Parasitic Borings in Fossil Fish-scales, 
Notes," in wbich he described, under the name of Talpina, 
branching bodies, or rather the casts of branching tubes, met 
with in the Belemnite from the upper chalk, adding also ex- 
cellent lithographed figures of them. On the perusal of this 
paper, and inspection of the illustrations, I was instantly 
satisfied that the ramifying tubes I had found in the fish- 
scales were of the same nature as those met with in Belem- 
nites,* although the former are so much more delicate than 
the latter. 
The illustrations accompanying this communication will 
afford you a better idea of the course and configuration of 
these borings than any description which I can give ; still, I 
may say, that they proceed between the delicate laminae of 
the scale in a graceful curve to their extremities, branching 
off on either side, and terminating in a symmetrically-formed 
dilatation or cell, and they do not frequently inoscolate. The 
beginnings of the tubes are occasionally confluent, as seen in 
fig. 1 «, at c ; in other instances they commence solitarily, and 
the parasite, having formed a few lateral branches, has appa- 
rently terminated its labours abruptly. It seems, also, that it 
has sometimes passed from one lamina into another ; thus 
taking a transverse direction, or one perpendicular to the 
laminae, which is made manifest by the microscope, now and 
then detecting a transverse section of a bore. Fig. I a ex- 
hibits a detached fragment of the original specimen ; viz., 
the one in which the borings were first discovered ; upon it 
the lines of growth are well marked. 
The discovery of the above interesting fact led me to the 
examination of fossil scales from other fishes, and the next I 
selected were the scales of Prionolepis angustus, a ganoid fish, 
from the lower chalk. I was not long in meeting with the 
depredations of its parasite ; but, you will observe, on ex- 
amining fig. 3, that its operations are of a very difierent 
character to those in the osmeroid scale exhibited in fig. 1 ; 
for, in this instance, the tubes proceed in a slightly wavy 
form, with the lateral branches passing off at a consider- 
able angle, and occasionally at right angles ; they extend also 
to a greater length than those in the first specimen ; still, there 
cannot be a doubt of their having a similar origin. 
Proceeding with my researches, I took another scale from 
the lower chalk, of a thicker substance, therefore, possibly 
from a placoid fish, but being a very imperfect specimen I 
cannot say which it is, ganoid or placoid ; it is, at least, from 
a different genus to Prionolepis. Here, again, I met with 
* It is singular that no traces of them have been observed in the 
Belemuites of the Jurassic series.-— Yon Hagenow. 
