514 On the Genera of Osteoglosside. 
LXIII.—On the Genera of Osteoglosside. 
By G. A. BouLENGER, F.R.S. 
In describing for the first time the remarkable Australian fish 
Scleropages Leichardti*, Dr. Giinther observed that the genus 
might not be separable from Osteoglossum, pointing to the 
affinity which the species bears to the Malay Osteoglossum 
formosum; and, in fact, he has since withdrawn the genus 
Scleropages altogether, and placed the Australian fish in the 
same genus with the South American and Malay, a course in 
which he has been followed by all subsequent writers. 
When dealing with the anatomy of Heterotis, the late 
Prof. Hyrtl+ made some allusions to the skeleton of an 
Osteoglossum, without naming the species, although in a later 
paper } he incidentally refers to the South-American Ostéeo- 
glossum Vandelli (=bicirrhosum) as the species examined 
by him. Having recently had a skeleton of the latter pre- 
pared, 1 find that the number of vertebra differs widely 
(28+59) from that (8314+30) given by Hyrtl. On commu- 
nicating with Prof. Bridge, whose collection in the Birmingham 
University contains a skeleton of Osteoylossum jformosum 
from Borneo, I hear that the specimen has the vertebra 
(29+80) corresponding so nearly with the indication of 
Hyrtl that I have little doubt the notes of this anatomist 
were taken from that very species, of which examples appear 
to have been distributed from Leyden about 1845. I am 
further confirmed in this supposition by the statement of 
Hyrtl that the branchiostegal rays number seventeen, the 
number in O. bicirrhosum being ten. 
Osteoglossum formosum and O. Leichardti are evidently 
closely allied species, and | think they should remain in the 
same genus, but at the same time it appears to me that they 
deserve to be generically separated from the American Osteo- 
glossum. ‘The four recent genera which would then form the 
Osteoglossidee may be thus briefly contrasted :— 
Osteoglossum, Vandellii—Mouth large; vomer, palatines, 
pterygoids, and glossohyal toothed; mandibular barbels; 
branchiostegal rays 10; body compressed, with trenchant 
abdomen ; coracoids forming a ventral keel ; dorsal fin long ; 
ventral fins nearly twice as far from the caudal as from the 
* Ann. & Mag. Nat, Hist. (3) xiv. 1864, p. 196. 
+ Denksehr. Akad. Wien, viii. 1854, p. 75. 
{ Op. cit. x. 1856, p. 50. 
