170 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
Fish remains in the Upper Limestone 
of Malta. 
Fish, remains in the Upper Coralline Limestone 
of the Maltese Islands are considered by many 
geological observers to be non-existent. There is 
no doubt but that they are very rare, and therefore 
when specimens are found the discovery is worth 
recording. While engaged on this formation in the 
vicinity of Miggiar Elma last week I was fortunate 
enough to find embedded in division b. a fragment 
of a fish bone, genus and species indeterminable, 
which measured 5j inches long, 2f inch in width 
and from | to f of an inch in thickness. 
J. H. C. 
Maltese Mosses. 
To Prof. Sicken berger’s list of Maltese mosses 
we may add a short reference to our Moss Flora 
which appeared in Malpighia Yol. IV., fasc. V-YI, 
1890 — under the name of — “Note cii Briologici 
Italiana per Ugo Brizi 
Of the six species here mentioned as received 
by Prof. Pirotta from Mr. Alfred Caruana Gatto 
the following must be added to Prof. Sicken- 
berger’s list: — • 
Eurhyn chium circinatum Schimh Bryum cirgen- 
teum L . var. hirtellum Be Not of Tortilla, muralis 
Hedw . Var. aestiva Paul de Beauu. Pleurochaete 
squarrosa Brid . 
Estivation. 
A rarer and even more curious phenomenon 
than hibernation, or winter sleep, is the estivation, 
or torpidit}^ during the dry season, of certain 
animals. As one of the mammals which is most 
sensitive to heat and dryness, M. L. Cuonot 
mentions the tanrec, of Madagascar, an insect- 
eating creature resembling the hedgehog. It is 
very active during the rainy season, but lies 
torpid in a shallow burrow for nearly six months 
in the dry period. The most remarkable summer 
sleepers, however, are found in the group of 
dipnoids, intermediate between the batrachians 
and fishes, and comprising at present but three 
animals — theLepidosiren paradoxa of the affluen ts 
of the Amazon, the Protopterus annectens of 
Gambia and Senegal, and the Ceratodus Forsteri 
of Australia. Their anatomical structure resembles 
that of the fishes, and a bronchial apparatus allows 
them to breathe in the water, while a pulmonary 
apparatus enables them to absorb the oxygen of 
of the air. A careful study of the Protopterus 
shows that during the entire dry season, lasting 
about nine months, it remains buried in the 
dried-up mud at a depth of five feet, and is sur- 
rounded by a sort of cocoon, which encloses it 
hermetically. Air penetrates through a narrow 
channel to the animal, which in this state breathes 
not only through a lung-into which the swimming- 
bladder is transformed- l$ut through its wide mem- 
branous tail. On the return of the rainy season, 
the dried mucus covering the animal dissolves, and 
the creature straightens out from its doubled-up 
position, and swims in the water for three months. 
Notes on Stereodon Melitensis, Owen. 
By John H. Cooke, F.G.S., etc. 
In the year 1865 portions of the upper and lower 
jaws of a large extinct fish that had been found 
imbedded in the Globigerina Limestone (1) of Malta 
were submitted by Dr. Leith Adams to Professor 
Owen for identification. Adams had considered 
them as being the remains of a crocodilian; but 
| in a paper that appeared in the Geological Maga- 
zine for April, 1865, (2) Owen pronounced them to 
be the remains of a large extinct fish that belonged 
to “the cycloid order, and having sauroid denti- 
tion,” and lie proposed that “this fine addition to 
Miocene Tertiary fishes” should be known by the 
name of Stereodon Melitensis. 
A portion of the bony skeleton of a fish of the 
same species was also discovered in the same loca- 
lity; but as it was not sent with the other speci- 
mens, it has been neither figured nor described. 
In the course of his paper Owen repeatedly 
refers to it, and finally concludes by saying, “It is 
much to be desired that the rest of the skeleton of 
this extinct fish should be figured.” No attempt 
(1 ) Bed IV. The “ Freestone ” of Spratt and 
Adams. 
(2) “ Stereodon Melitensis ,” Owen , Geol. Mag , 
April , 1865 , 
