655 
of Edinburgh^ Session 1865 - 66 . 
main rivers or creeks of the great Calabar river, and in the pools 
of the marshy lands. It is occasionally sold in the markets, and 
eaten by some of the natives. Its native name is U-nydng, which 
the Kev. Mr Kohb explains, by suggesting that it may be derived 
from a verb signifying to struggle or scuffle for the possession of 
a thing, and he therefore supposes it to mean the struggler, or, 
using a Scottish word as more appropriate, the “ wamhler,” — the 
name being probably given to it, on account of the apparent 
struggling, wriggling, or undulating movements of its elongated 
body, as it swims in the water or mud of the river. 
Summary of characters of the genus Calamoichthysf' and its rela- 
tion to the genus Polypterus : — 
Gtenus Calamoichthys. — Head^ small, depressed above, somewhat 
oval in shape (rounded and narrow in front, expands laterally 
behind orbits, and contracts again at the back part, towards neck). 
Suboperculum wanting. (No small plates below preoperculum.) 
Body^ much elongated; anguiform (cylindrical for about half its 
length, then becoming gradually more compressed laterally, and 
tapering slightly towards its caudal extremity). Caudal extremity^ 
short, tapering rapidly. Caudal Fin^ rounded ; homocercal ; fin- 
rays, hard. (Scales, osseous, rhombic, sculptured.) Fins, small — 
Pectorals, obtusely lobate, fin -rays soft ; Dorsal finlets, numerous, 
separate ; Anal (with fulcrum at base anteriorly), in male large, in 
female small; fin-rays hard; Yentrals, wanting. 
The last character is rather an important one, as this fish thus 
appears to be the only living ganoid yet known which has no ventral 
fins. Yan der Hoeven, in his “ Handbook of Zoology,” gives the 
presence of ventral fins as one of the characters of his great Section 
III. of the Class Pisces, the Ganolepidoti ; and older naturalists, 
as Cuvier, place the ganoids, for a similar reason, among the 
Malaco'pteryii Ahdominales. The discovery of this fish will there- 
fore necessitate a change in this character of the whole section. 
In the Gtenus Polypterus (on the other hand), iho' Head is rela- 
* Since this paper was sent to press, the author has learned that a closely 
corresponding name to Erpetoichthys had been already used in Ichthyology ; 
and, accordingly, he now changes the designation to Calamoichthys (Calamos 
and ichthys), which still bears a relation to the cylindrical shape of the 
fish. 
VOL. V. 
4q 
