| OCR Text |
Show 484 MR. R. J. L. GUPPY ON A SPECIMEN [NOV. 3, immature fish, as the specimen now under notice is not more than three feet in length. It is also to be noted that the pectoral fins are silvery, and tbe anal and broken caudal fins silvery tinged with red; that the first ray of the dorsal fin, apparently complete, is acutely pointed, b\ inches in length, and but very slightly curved backward ; and that the pupil of the eye is not round but oval longitudinally, as shown in the figures of L.fiski, Gthr. (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, pis. xix., xx.), but with a slight downward inclination anteriorly. The minute ventral fins are distinctly five-rayed. The depth of the body not far from the head is five inches and three-quarters, but its stoutest part in the same place, along the dorsal line, is rather less than half an inch in thickness. Dr. Giinther (loc. cit. p. 245) suggests that L. capellei, Schleg., and L. cristatus, Johns., m a y possibly be conspecific with L. cepedianus, and in that case the latter would be recorded as having occurred in the Mediterranean, off Madeira, and in the Japanese Sea; while its discovery now at the Cape of Good Hope will supply a further proof of its wide oceanic range. It is interesting to find both the type species of Lophotes and the very distinct L. fiski turning up in the same Bay within two years of each other. South-African Museum, Cape Town, 30th June, 1891. 6. On a Specimen of Pleurotomaria from Tobago, West Indies. By R. J. LECHMERE GUPPY, C.M.Z.S. [Received October 28,. 1891.] Among some shells placed in the Tobago Court at the Trinidad and Tobago Exhibition of 1890, m y attention was soon drawn to a fine specimen of Pleurotomaria. On inquiry I found that the shell was the property of a gentleman of Tobago, off which island it had been obtained. The original owner having died, I was unable to obtain complete particulars respecting the acquisition of the shell, which after some negotiation became m y property. In an interesting paper by Henry Woodward, published.in the ' Geological Magazine' for 1885, some particulars are given respecting the fossil and recent species of the genus, of which I avail myself. According to this author the number of fossil (extinct) species of Pleurotomaria is 1156, of which 226 are British. The genus was supposed to be entirely extinct until 1855, when the first living example was found by M . Beau off Mariegalante. This was described by Fischer and Bemardi in the ' Journal de Conchyliologie' for 1856 (p. 160, pi. v.) as PL quoyana. This specimen, 45 millimetres in height, was in 1873 purchased by Miss de Burgh, of London, for =£25-a sum, as stated by the editors of the ' Journal de Conchyliologie,' rather below than above the real value of so rare a shell, of which, as stated by Woodward, only three examples are known up to the present time. |
