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Show 18/0.] MR. G. KREFFT ON CERATODUS FORSTERI. 221 " My specimen measured seven and a half feet in length, and, from its much worn teeth and the condition of its skull, appears as if it had attained full growth, whereas G. indicus reaches up to from fifteen to twenty feet in length. I have only just received it; so I am not in a position to say much about it. " Before this specimen reached m e I was fully convinced, from m y observations on the Irawady, that its Cetacean was a round-headed species." Mr. Harting exhibited an unusually fine specimen of the Dusky Redshank (Totanus fuscus) in summer plumage. This had been stated to have been killed on the Thames, near Surbiton, but was subsequently discovered to have been sent from Holland. The Rev. H . B. Tristram exhibited two skins of Luscioniola melanopogon (Temm.), killed by Mr. Brookes near Etawah (north of Agra) in Central India, being the first instance of this rare species having been obtained in India. Mr. Tristram also exhibited some other rare Indian warblers. The following papers were read : - 1. Description of a gigantic Amphibian allied to the Genus Lepidosiren, from the Wide-Bay district, Queensland. B y G E R A R D K R E F F T , F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., Curator and Secretary of the Australian M u s e u m , Sydney, N e w South Wales. • 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 (Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles, tome iii. p. 129). 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 Prof. Agassiz's name, and describe the Australian amphibian, in honour of its discoverer, the Hon. William Forster, M.C.A., as CERATODUS FORSTERI. In general shape the specimen before m e (fig. 1), which is somewhat mutilated and without intestines, resembles the Lepidosiren annectens. It is nearly 3 feet in length, has a broad flat head, small eyes, and four limbs in the shape of flappers. The body is covered with large cycloid scales, ten rows on each side, the third row from above marked, but not very distinctly, as a lateral line. There is a large gill-opening before each pectoral limb, containing well-developed branchiae (on account of the state of the specimen, however, a careful examination of them was impossible), and a rather large pair of P R O C ZOOL. Soc-1870, No. XVI. |