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THES TARPON AND LADY—FISH - AND: -THEIR 
RELATIVES 
By THEODORE GILL 
Data respecting the habits of the tarpon and lady-fish are here 
brought together from widely distant sources and the little infor- 
mation at hand respecting the habits of their relative, the Ptero- 
thrissus of Japan, is added. The statements here collected, it is 
hoped, may serve as hints to observers respecting facts to be looked 
for in the biology of those fishes. 
The morphological or rather chief osteological characteristics of 
the types here considered have been recently investigated and eluci- 
dated by Dr. W. G. Ridewood in a weli illustrated article ““On the 
Cranial Osteology of the Fishes of the Families Elopide and Albu- 
lide”? published in the Proceedings of the Zodlogical Society of 
London for 1904 (vol. II, pp. 35-81). The illustrations are so good 
and so much to the point that they are here reproduced. They show 
well the distinctive characterers of the genera as well as the common 
characteristics which evince the relationship of the Elopids and Albu- 
lids and distinguish them from the Clupeids to which the former 
have so strong but illusive likeness. 
Tue TARPON AND ITS FAMILY 
One of the most remarkable of the families of fishes is that of 
the Elopids, and of that family the tarpon of the Floridian waters 
is the most notable. Yet comparatively little is known of the habits 
of any of the species. Much—very much—has been written about 
the tarpon, but most of it has been of a personal or subjective nature 
and not about the fish itself. To elicit new facts and indicate desi- 
derata is the object of the present article. What is known may be 
briefly summarized. 
I 
The family of the Elopids (Elopidz) is composed of a few living 
fishes which have much superficial resemblance to the herring fam- 
ily; they have a compressed fusiform body, covered by smooth sil- 
very cycloid scales; the head is bony and scaleless; the mouth and 
jaws nearly like those of Clupeids and more or less oblique ; the dor- 
sal is submedian and the other fins are essentially like those of the 
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