70 H.SWINNERTON, The osteology of Cromeria nilotica and Galaxias attenuatus. 
cartilaginous; but in Cromeria degeneration seems to be taking place 
in the reverse direction, for here it is the anterior elements which 
are reduced and cartilaginous, and the posterior which are strong 
and ossified. 
Other portions of the skeleton show similarly divergent conditions; 
thus whilst the cranium of Galaxias is primitive and largely carti- 
laginous, the primary pectoral girdle is specialized and well ossified ; 
in Cromeria these conditions are reversed. 
Summing up the conclusions to be drawn from the records of the 
foregoing pages as far as they concern Cromeria, it may be said, 
that this fish is not related to the Galaxiidae but is a specialized 
member of some other offshoot of the Malacopterygian stock. 
Of the Galaxiidae very little that is definite can be stated at 
present). In some respects e. g. the forward extension of the cranial 
cavity, and the condition of the articular head of the hyomandibular, it is 
as lowly as or even more lowly than the Salmon, in others e. g. the 
large supraoccipital, the premaxillary gape, the cartilaginous fourth 
pharyngobranchial, the specialized pectoral girdle, it seems more 
advanced than the Pike. 
1) Gtyrner |. c.; Core, Ichthyology of Lesser Antilles, in: Trans. 
Amer. phil. Soc., V. 14, p. 455; Gin, Families and subfamilies of Fishes, 
in: Mem. nation. Acad. Washington, V. 6, 1893; all differ in their 
placing of this family. — In pointing out the absence of the meso- 
coracoid in the Galaxiidae, Bounmncer had already implicitly referred 
the family to the group Haplomi, as defined by Corn and himself, 
of which the Pike is the type. 
