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until he succeeded in obtaining for Mr. Krefft a specimen which, 
although in an imperfect state of preservation, removed all 
doubts on the matter, and enabled Mr. Krefft to communicate 
this remarkable discovery to the Zoological Society of London 
(April 28, 1870). He says: “ The discovery of a species of 
Lepidosiren in Australia will, no doubt, take the scientific 
world by surprise — the more so as this newly-found amphibian 
has a dentition different from that of Lepidosiren , and closely 
resembling the teeth of certain fossil sharks described by 
Agassiz under the generic term of Ceratodus. On this ground, 
and being convinced that the various species of animals classed 
under the name of Ceratodus were not sharks, but amphibians, 
I shall adopt Professor Agassiz’s name, and describe the Aus- 
tralian amphibian, in honour of its discoverer, as Ceratodus 
forsteri .” 
As soon as Mr. Krefft had recognised the importance of this 
discovery, the Trustees of the Australian Museum took steps 
to secure well-preserved examples. They sent a collector 
into the district where the animal was known to occur ; and, 
with their usual liberality, they despatched to the British 
Museum for examination the first specimens they could spare, 
by which I was enabled to work out the details of its structure. 
Some attempts subsequently made to obtain other examples 
appear to have been unsuccessful, as the fish is locally distri- 
buted, and easy of capture at a certain season or at a certain 
state of the water only. 
The specimens hitherto obtained have come from the Burnett, 
Dawson, and Mary Bivers, some from the fresh water of the 
upper parts, others from the lower brackish portions. The fish 
is said to attain to a “ weight of twenty pounds,” and again to 
a 66 length of six feet,” the largest example sent to the British 
Museum being about three and a half feet long. Locally the 
settlers call it “ Flat-head,” “ Burnett-,” or “ Dawson-Salmon,” 
and the aborigines “ Barramunda,” a name which they appear 
to apply also to another similar fish, the Osteoglossum leich- 
ardti. I found the intestinal tract crammed full of more or 
less masticated leaves of various plants ( Myrtacece and 
Graminece ; they had lost the green colour entirely, being of 
a uniformly deep black, as if they had lain in water for some 
time, and were eaten when in a decomposing condition. The 
quantity of these vegetables is enormous, and there is no doubt 
that they constitute the principal food of the fish. Shells, frag- 
ments of which have been found in the stomach, may have 
been swallowed accidentally ; however, it has been stated re- 
peatedly that the fish can be caught with a hook baited with 
a worm. The flesh is salmon-coloured, and much esteemed as 
food. 
