XIPHIID^. 
495 
Genus HISTIOPHORUS, LacepMe. 
[Hist. Nat. Poiss. vol. iii. 1802, p. 874 {Istiophorus).'] 
The fossils provisionally ascribed to this genus are fragments of 
rostrum, named only for convenience of reference. Each pre¬ 
maxilla is traversed by on-e principal longitudinal nutritive canal, 
which disappears towards the extremity of the bone. 
Histiophoxnis eocsenicus, sp. nov. 
[Text-figure 18, no. 2.] 
Type, nostrum ; British Museum. 
Rostrum rather short and stout, depressed oval in transverse 
section, its outlines shown in fig. 18, no. 2. Premaxillae firmly 
fused distally and nutritive canals soon obliterated. 
Form. Loc. Middle Eocene : Brackleshara Bay. 
25744. Type specimen, vertically crushed in its anterior half; its 
outline shown from above and in transverse section of one 
third nat. size in fig. 18, nos. 2, 2a. The nasal bones are 
large, and the rostrum is already quite solid at the point 
marked u, where the transverse section 2a has been cut. 
The surface of the bone seems to have been quite smooth.. 
Dixon ColL 
Histiophorus rotmidus, sp. nov. 
[Text-figure 18, no. 3.] 
Type. Rostrum ; British Museum. 
Rostrum very short and stout, not much depressed, its outlines 
shown in fig. 18, no. 3. 
Form. Loc. Tertiary Phosphate Beds : South Carolina, TJ.S.A. 
P. 8799. Type specimen, shown in outline from above and in- 
transverse section, of one third nat. size, in fig. 18, nos. 
3, 3a; Cooper River, Charleston. The premaxillse are 
completely fused together, and the outer face, as preserved, 
is rugose. Presented hy Thomas Royle^ Fsq., 1898. 
Fossil rostra have also been ascribed to this genus under the 
following names:— 
Histiopkorus antiquus, E. D. Cope, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist, 
vol. xii. (1869), p. 310. Xiphias antiquus^ J. Leidy, 
Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. vol. vii. (1856), p. 397.— 
Eocene Greensand ; Burlington Co., New Jersey. 
Histiophorus parvulus, 0. C. Marsh, Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 
1869 (1870), p. 227.—Eocene ; New Jersey. 
