EO OD MOA ct A eee RE AT ge = 
Miscellaneous. 151 
pidosaurus, and the abdominal position of its ventrals, which consist 
of one simple and nine branched rays, we cannot but come to the 
conclusion that this fish is a true Malacopterygian. The swimming 
bladder is wanting, as in many other Physostomi. 
I have obtained evidence to which family of Physostomi Alepido- 
saurus is to be referred, by the examination of its skeleton*. 1. The 
suboperculum is wanting ; it is replaced by the interoperculum, 
which equals the operculum in size. 2. The margin of the upper 
jaw is formed entirely by the intermazillary bone; it is armed 
throughout its length with a row of small teeth; it is very weak, 
and dilated only in front into a nearly transparent lamella. 3. The 
maxillary bone is rudimentary: whilst in freshwater Siluroids with 
a short skull it is diminished in length, in Alepidosaurus it certainly 
imitates the cranial bones in its elongated form, but is not thicker 
than a needle, and can only be retained by careful preparation of the 
skull. 
These osteological characters distinctly indicate a near alliance of 
our fish with the Siluroidei, notwithstanding any difference of form ; 
and to this we may add that it is destitute of scales, and predatory ; 
that, like most species of this family, it has an adipose fin, and that, 
like all of them, it is destitute of ceca. The relationship betrays 
itself even in some less important characters,—for example, in the 
outer ray of the pectoral fins, which is thickened and toothed. We 
have thus in Alepidosaurus the first example of a marine Siluroid 
fish ; and if there be an objection to destroy the unity of the fresh- 
water Siluroidei by the interpolation of Alepidosaurus, we may form 
for it a peculiar family (Alepidosauride) with the characters of the 
genus, which will then take its place in the immediate vicinity of the 
Siluroidei. 
It is to be expected that Alepidosaurus ferox will not remain the 
sole species of this group. The fish described by Richardson, from 
the fragment of a cranium from Van Diemen’s Land, as dlepisaurus 
sp. (Voy. ‘ Erebus’ and ‘Terror,’ Ichthyol. p. 34, pl. 22. figs. 1-4), is 
identical with that from Madeira, as I have convinced myself by 
personal examination of the specimen, as far as the characters can 
be ascertained from the existing materials. His assertion that Ale- 
pidosaurus belongs to the Sphyrenide rests upon a very superficial 
investigation. But Mr. Lowe has told me of another species, very 
similar to our fish, which the fishermen in Madeira not unfrequently 
take with the hook at great depths. The union of the vertebree, of 
the bones of the skull, and of the muscular segments is, however, so 
loose that, by its own efforts to free itself, the fish breaks up into 
fragments, and those portions which can be brought up to the sur- 
face become broken up in the air as though they had been dissolved 
by boiling.—Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1860, p. 121. 
* I will give a detailed description of the skeleton in the course of my ‘Cata- 
logue of Fishes.’ It is remarkable in general for the singular deficiency of earthy 
constituents, as the muscles are for the extremely small development of the 
ligamentous tissue. 
