608 TELEOSTEI CHAP. 
that it is not confined to fresh waters, but occurs also in the 
sea. Specimens were observed by Mr. Rupert Vallentin in the 
Falkland Islands, where the Fish is known to the inhabitants 
as “Smelts,” in shoalsin the shallow water along the shore; and, 
according to Mr. F. E. Clarke, the same species, in New Zealand, 
periodically descends to the sea, where it spawns, from January 
to March, and returns from March to May. A marine species 
has recently been discovered at the Chatham Islands. In New 
Zealand, the Galaxias were called “ Trout” by the settlers before 
the introduction of Salmonids, whilst the fry of G. attenuatus are 
eaten as “ Whitebait.” The largest species reach the length of 
a foot. Neochanna, from New Zealand, differs from Galazxias 
in the absence of ventral fins; it has been found in burrows, 
which it excavates at a distance from water. 
Fam. 2. Haplochitonidae.—Small fresh-water Trout-like 
Fishes, agreeing in most respects with the Galaxiidae, to 
which they are unquestionably closely related, differing only in 
the greater extent of the praemaxillaries, which exclude the 
maxillary from the oral border, in the double basis cranii (the 
prootics uniting under the brain, leaving a canal between them 
and the parasphenoid), in the shorter parapophyses, which, ike the 
neural arches of the praecaudal vertebrae, are autogenous, and 
in the presence of a small adipose dorsal fin, opposed to the anal. 
Two genera: Haplochiton, naked, with a single species from 
Chili, the southern extremity of South America, and the Falk- 
land Islands, and Prototroctes,-covered with small scales, of which 
one species inhabits Qneensland, another South Australia, and 
a third New Zealand. In Haplochiton, the urogenital orifice 
of both sexes is produced into a cylindrical tube, which hes 
concealed in a groove in front of the anal fin. 
Fam. 3. Enchodontidae.—Margin of the upper jaw formed 
by the praemaxillaries and the maxillaries, the latter sometimes 
toothed like the former. Frontals in contact with the supra- 
occipital; basis crani simple. Ribs sessile; praecaudal verte- 
brae without transverse processes. Rayed dorsal fin never much 
extended ; sometimes an adipose fin behind it. Scales delicate or 
absent, but occasional longitudinal series of scutes occur, the 
dorsal series, when present, being unpaired. 
Cretaceous Fishes allied to, and apparently more generalised 
than, the Esocidae and Scopelidae. Numerous remains from 
