On the /S/^m// o/GonorhyncIius Greyi. 361 



XLV. — On the Skull o/Gonorhvncluis Greyi. 

 By W. G. KiDEwooD, D.Sc., F.L.S. 



[Plate XVr.] 



CoKonnTNCHUs, the sole existing genus of the family Gono- 

 rhynchidse, is an aberrant Teleostean fish whose affinities 

 have often been tlie subject of debate and are not even now 

 definitely known. Having been recently engaged upon an 

 investigation on the cranial osteology of the fishes of the 

 families Elopidse and Albulidae (Proc. Zool. Son. 190 4-, ii. 

 pp. 35-81), jNIormyridie, Notopteridic, and Ilyodontidie 

 (Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xxix. 1904, pp. 188-217), Clupeidae 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc., in the press), and Osteoglossidie (Journ. 

 Linn. Soc, Zool., in the press), I took up the study of the 

 skull of Gonorhynchus with no little interest, since there was 

 every hope for believing that in the characters of so complex 

 a structure evidence might be forthcoming as to the relation- 

 ship existing between the Gonorhynchidie and the other 

 families of the Malacopterygii. 



The material available consisted of three skulls of Gono- 

 rhynchus Greyi at the British Museum, two of them being 

 prepared specially for the investigation. My thanks are due 

 to Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.ll.S., for facilities offered for the 

 examination of these specimens. 



The genus Gonorhynchus was established in 1763 by 

 Gronovius (Zoophyl. Gronov, fasc. i. 1763, genus 199, p. 55, 

 pi. X. fig. 2), who placed it immediately before the genus 

 Cobitis, with which he must have thought it closely related, 

 because in Gray^s British Museum Catalogue, printed in 

 1854 from the manuscript of Gronovius, the fish appears on 

 p. 41 under the name Cobitis gonorhynchus. 



Gonorhynchus was placed among the carps by Gmelin 

 (Syst. Nat. Linn. i. 3, 1788, p. 14.22), Schneider (Bloch and 

 Schneider, Syst. Ichthyol. 1801, p. 443), Lacepede (Hilt. 

 Nat. Poiss. V. 1803, p. 570), and Cuvier (Regne Anirr.. ii. 

 1817, p. 196) ; but Valenciennes (Hist. Nat, Poiss. xix. 

 1846, pp. 203, 204, and 208) objected on the ground of its 

 numerous (nine) pyloric caeca and because the maxillae shared 

 with the premaxillae the bounding of the upper border of the 

 mouth. Valenciennes (/. c. p. 179) associated it with Chanos 

 by reason of the large size of the branchiostegal membrane 

 and the absence of teeth from the jaws. He pointed out 

 further that Gonorht/nchns, like Chanos and Alhnla, has a 



Ann. cC; ^I(i<j. A', Ifisi. Ser. 7. Vol. xv. 25 



