88 Edwin Chapin Starks. 



KASTKELLIGEK. 



A specimen of Rastrelliger braucliysomus, Jordan and Starks, 12 inches in 

 length, from the Fiji Islands. 



The cranium is less depressed than in Scomber, though it does 

 not differ in the crests and ridges of the cranium from that genus. 

 The epiotics appear to meet very broadly posteriorly, but close exam- 

 ination reveals a slender spur from the supraoccipital extending down 

 between them to the exoccipital suture. The top of the craniuin in 

 front of the oblique ridge that runs from the supraoccipital to the 

 supraorbital rim is finely sculptured and thickened by a net- 

 work of fine ridges where in Scomber the bone is smooth. The fora- 

 men magnum forms a long tunnel of the exoccipitals as in Scomber, 

 and the condition of the exoccipitals over the basioccipital and their 

 condyles is the same. 



The mandible and maxillary elements are much weaker than in 

 Scomber.' The premaxillary is a long slender bone from which the 

 maxillary arches widely away, being attached to it only at each end; 

 the auxiliary maxillary is small. The most striking difference 

 between this genus and Scomber lies in the arrangement of the lat- 

 eral bones of the skull and the basibranchials. The pterygoid norm- 

 ally (as in Scomber) is attached along the anterior edge of the quad- 

 rate, at the upper end of which it bends at an angle forward to sup- 

 port the palatine; the metapterygoid is behind and a little above the 

 quadrate. In Kastrelliger the metapterygoid is abOve and somewhat 

 in front of the quadrate, and the pterygoid borders the entire front 

 of both the quadrate and metapterygoid turning at an angle at the 

 upper edge of the latter. 



The basibranchials form a high, sharp, knife-like ridge, while the 

 hypobranchials are deep and compressed and help to elevate the basi- 

 branchials still higher. The second and third superior pharyngeals are 

 joined into a single plate a little more firmly and completely than in 

 Scomber. The branchial arches are crowded backwards against and 

 between the shoulder girdles ; and in fact all of the bones of the head 

 give the impression of having been drawn downward and backward 

 and compressed. 



There are 14 abdominal vertebrae and 16 caudal, or a total of 31 



