1904.] OK THE CRANIAL OSTEOLOGV OF ELOPID^ AND ALBULID.-E. 35 



Repekexce Letters. 



&., basal portion of g.ill-rakev. r-/., elastic fibres. 



h.a., brancbial artery. c.'f.\ elastic fibres sunouudiug lower- 



h.f., branchial filaments. most extremity of gill-raker 



hv branchial vein /'•- cut end of branchial arch taken 



h.'V.', blood-vessel supplying- gill-raker. through the hypobranchiaL 



c, central cavity traversing basal cartilage. 



portion of gill-raker. i-l>-s., cut edge of interbranctoal septum. 



cart., cartilage of branchial arch. i-'l-r., posterior (or inner) gill-raker. 



CO., central cavity of basal portion of m. mucous membrane. 



gill-raker seen in section. m.f., muscle-fibres. 

 cli., channels containing capillary j o-fj-i'-, anterior (or outer) gill-raker. 



blood-vessels and loose connec- p- loose nucleated tissue Ij-mg in 



tive tissue (pulp-remains ?) central cavity. 



fl., cut ends of elastic fibres which ' r.. gill-rakers. 



are inserted deeply into matrix s.. septum formed hy cartilage ot 



of o-ill-raker. branchial arch. 



e., cut eiid of In-anchial arch taken s.li., shaft portion ot giU-raker. 

 through the epibranchial 

 cartilage. 



4. On the Crauial Osteology of the Fishes of the Families 

 Elop'idce and Alhulidce, with Kemarks on the Morphology 

 of the Skull in the Lower Teleostean Fishes generally. 

 By W. G. RiDEWOOD, D.Sc., F.L.S., Lecturer on Biology 

 at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, I^ondon. 



[Received April 27, 1904.] 

 (Text-figures 8-18.) 



An investigation on the structure of the skull of the lower 

 Teleostean fishes was begun by me some years ago for the purpose 

 of determining what might and what might not be regarded as 

 primitive featui-es in the Teleostean skull, and with the object 

 also of ascertaining the degrees of relationship existnig between 

 the various genera investigated, so far at least as the cranial 

 characters might bear upon the subject. The work, however, was 

 repeatedly interrvipted by pressure of other occupation, and the 

 present paper deals only with a small proportion of the whole 

 inquiry. Descriptions of the skuhs of the Elopida? and Albulida^ 

 are here given, and I hope before long to publish similar descrip- 

 tions of the skulls of Mormyrida?, Notopteridre, Hyodontidae, 

 Osteoglossida?, and Clupeid*. In the second part of the paper I 

 ofler some remarks, more or less disjointed, upon the morphology 

 of the Teleostean skull, based upon an examination of the species 

 of fishes detailed in the list given at the commencement of that 

 section. The discussion of the afiinities of the genera under 

 consideration is best deferred for the present. 



For the material investigated I am indebted veiy largely 

 to Prof. G. B. Howes, of the Royal College of Science, and 

 Mr. G. A. Boulenger, of the British Museum, and to them I hereby 

 tender my sincere thanks. I ^dsh also gxatefully to acknowledge 

 the help that I have from time to time received in the way 0f 



