362 Dr. W. G. Ridewood on the 



conical licad, w ith snout projecting above the reduced mouth 

 (/. c. p. 201). 



Gonor/n/nchus v,as obtained on the ' Erebus ' and 'Terror' 

 Expedition, and Richardson (Zool. Voy. 'Erebus' and 

 'Terror/ ii. Fishes, part 7, 1815, p. 44), thinking it a new 

 genus, named it RliynclKena, because of its projecting muzzle, 

 and placed it among the Cyprinoids. 



Schlegcl (Siebold's ' Eauna Japonica/ Pisces, 1850, p. 217) 

 placed, the genus Gonorhynchus between Leuciscus and 

 Cobiti.t. In Giinther's ' Catalogue of Fishes in the British 

 ]\Iuseum' (vii. 1868) the family Gonorhynchidie follows the 

 Cyprinidaj and precedes the Ilyodontidae, Osteoglossidje, and 

 Clupeidfe; in the 'Study of Fishes,' 1880, by the same 

 author, the family comes after the Salmonidae, Percopsidse, 

 and Haplochitonidse, and before the Hyodontidie, Panto- 

 dontidcC, Osteoglossidai, and Clupeidse. 



Kncr (Reisc der Eregatte ' Novara,' Zool. i. 18G9, Eische) 

 placed the family Rhynchrense, containing the genus Gono- 

 rhynclius, between the Elopidse, Chiroccntridse, and Lnto- 

 deirae on the one hand and the Cyprinodontes and Cyprinoidie 

 on the other. On page 842 he notes that the form of the 

 accessory branchial organ of Gonorliynchus testifies to the 

 relation which this fish bears to Chanos and the true 

 Clupeids. 



By Cope (" Ichth. Lesser Antilles," Trans. Amer. Phil. 

 Soc. n. s. xiv. 1871, p. 455) the Gonorhynchidse are bracketed 

 with the Sauridse, because they have the " parictals united " 

 and " no tail vertebrae." (As is shown below, the parictals 

 of Gonorhynchus are separated.) 



Gill (" Families of Fishes," Smithsonian IMisccll. Coll. 

 1872, p. 16) placed the family Gonorhynchidae between the 

 Salmonoids, Scopelids, and Alepocephalidse on the one hand 

 and the Hyodontidse and Clujcidiie on the other. 



According to Smith "Woodward (Brit. Mus. Cat. Foss. 

 Fishes, iv. 1901, p. ix) the Gonorhynchidae are but slightly 

 modified Scopelids; but Boulenger declines to admit any 

 close affinity between the GonoihynchidcC and the Ilaplomi 

 (Scopelidte, Esocidse, &c.), and lays stiess on the presence of 

 a mesocoraeoid element in the shoulder-girdle of Gono- 

 rhynchus and its absence from that of the Haplomi. He 

 places the family Gonorhynchidae at the end of the suborder 

 jNlalacopterygii, following the Salmonidae, Alepocephalidse, 

 and Stoniiatidie, and preceding the Cromeriidie (Ann. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. (7) xiii. 1904, p. 165). 



For a highly specialized family the Gonorhynchidae are of 

 great antiquity ; they date back to the Cretaceous period. 



