1903.] Hay, Cretaceous Fishes from Mount Lebanon, Syria. 4^5 



others, No. 45276 (3840) and No. 4527c (3832), are from Ha- 

 jula. The first-mentioned presents the head and the body to 

 behind the ventral fins; the two others, only the heads. In 

 the first, the lower jaw has a width of 11 mm. and a length of 

 45 mm. The teeth behind the anterior fangs appear to be 

 compressed to edges and to be striated and grooved. The 

 fangs are slender. No dorsal scutes are present. In No. 

 4527c (3832), the jaw is 12 mm. wide and apparently 55 mm. 

 long. The teeth, upper and lower, are mostly damaged, but 

 they are rather coarsely striated; and many of them, even 

 the large fangs, are furnished with edges. 



No. 45276 (3840) and its counterpart furnish the head of a 

 large individual. The length of the head to the hinder bor- 

 der of the operculum is 120 mm. The length of the lower 

 jaw is 80 mm.; its depth is 21 mm. The head has been 

 crushed from above. Both tumid palatines are shown, each 

 with a long slender fang. The fang is nearly smooth on the 

 outer side, but coarsely striated on the inner side. Whether 

 cutting edges are present is not certain. The lower fang is 

 likewise striated on the inner surface. This belongs possibly 

 to a different species, but this cannot now be demonstrated. 



Specimens from both Hakel and Hajula. 



MYCTOPHID^. 



Osmeroides Agassiz. 



Osmeroides Agassiz (L.), Poiss. Foss., V, pt. ii, 1844, p. 103. — 

 PiCTET (F. J.), Poiss. Foss. Mt. Liban, 1850, p. 27. 



Sardinioides Marck (W. v.), Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesellsch., X, 

 1858, p. 245. — Woodward (A. S.), Cat. Foss. Fishes, IV, 1901, p. 236; 

 Foss. Fishes English Chalk, 1902, p. 32. 



Dermoptychius Marck (W. v.), Palasontogr., XV, 1868, p. 287. 



The employment of the name Sardinioides for this genus is 

 an evident violation of the law of priority ; a law recognized 

 by all naturalists, but obeyed with reluctance by many when 

 their prepossessions are attacked; and the only means now 

 provided for deciding between rival systematic names. The 

 type of the genus is 0. monaster i Agassiz. 



