136 The Grayling and the Smelt 



with large teeth, distensible muscles, and an extraordinary 

 power of swallowing other fishes, scarcely surpassed by Chias- 

 modon or Saccopharynx. Evermannellus (Odontostomus , the latter 

 name preoccupied) and Omosudis are the principal genera. 



The Paralepidce are reduced allies of Plagyodus, slender, 

 silvery, with small fins and fang-like jaws. As in Plagyodus, 

 the adipose fin is developed and there are small luminous dots. 

 The species are few and mostly northern; one of them, Sudis 

 ringens, is known only from a single specimen taken by the 

 present writer from the stomach of a hake (Merluccius produc- 

 tus), the hake in turn swallowed whole by an albacore in the 

 Santa Barbara Channel. The Sudis had been devoured by the 

 hake, the hake by the albacore, and the albacore taken on 

 the hook before the feeble Sudis had been digested. 



Perhaps allied to the Plagyodontida is also the large family 

 of Enchodontida, widely represented in the Cretaceous rocks of 



FIG. 97. Eurypholis sulcidens Pictet, restored. Family Enchodontidaz. Upper 

 Cretaceous of Mt. Lebanon. (After Woodward, as E. boissieri.) 



Syria, Europe, and Kansas. The body in this group is elongate, 

 the teeth very strong, and the dorsal fin short. Enchodus 

 lewesiensis is found in Mount Lebanon, Halec sternbergi in the 

 German Cretaceous, and many species of Enchodus in Kansas; 

 Cimolichthys dims in North Dakota. 



Remotely allied to these groups is the extinct family of 

 Dercetidce from the Cretaceous of Germany and Syria. These 

 are elongate fishes, the scales small or wanting, but with two 

 or more series of bony scutes along the flanks. In Dercetis 

 scutatus the scutes are large and the dorsal fin is very long. Other 

 genera are. Leptotrachelus and Pelargorhynchus. Dr. Boulenger 

 places the Dercetidas in the order Heteromi. This is an expression 

 of the fact that their relations are still unknown. Probably 



