1904.] OSTEOLOGY OF THE ELOPIU.E AN'D ALBULID.E. 37 



temporal bone is properly regarded as a constituent of the 

 shoulder-girdle ; but since Gill and others have laid some stress 

 on the manner in which this bone is attached to the back of the 

 cranium, it is ex^^edient in the present connection to treat it as a 

 bone of the skull. The explanation of the exclusion of the 

 preopercular and interopercular bones from the opercular series is 

 given on p. 68. 



(3) Gircumorhital Sei'ies. — The lachrymal bone is included in 

 this series of bones set around the eye. but it is considered advis- 

 able to avoid the use of this name. The bone diifers in no 

 important respect from the othei-s of the series, and it is not easy 

 to identify if there are several sensory-canal bones present at the 

 side of the snout. The nasal, although shut out from the orbital 

 margin, belongs to the same categoiy. and is included u.nder the 

 present head, unless it be rigidly united with the cranium as above 

 mentioned. The term "preorbital" is employed to designate that 

 bone wdiich forms the anterior margin of the oibit. The word is 

 thus not used in the same sense as it is by Allis (Journ. Morph. 

 xiv. 1898), who, in the case of Amia. has applied it to the lateral 

 ethmoid (endosteal pi'efrontal). 



(4) Maxillary Series. — Maxillary, pi'emaxiilary, surmaxillary 

 bones. 



(5) Manclihular Series. — Dentary, articulai-, angulai'. 



(6) Hyopalatine Series. — Hyomandibular, symplectic, quadrate, 

 metapterygoid, entopterygoid, ectopterygoid, palatine. 



(7) Opercular Series. — Opercular, suboperculai-, branchiostegal 

 rays, jugular plate. 



(8) Hyohranchial Series. — All the bones of the h}'oidean and 

 bi'anchial ai-ches except the hyomandibular and symplectic bones. 



E L o P I D .E. 



Elops saurus. 



The only published figure of the skull of Elojjs appears to be 

 that given by Agassizin his ' Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles,' 

 Atlas, V. pi. G. fig. 1. The figure shows the superficial bones 

 well, and most of them can be readily identified, in spite of the 

 fact that no attempt has been made to label them in any way. 

 The following remarks ai'e based upon the examination of four 

 skulls. 



Cranium (text-fig. 8, A, B, k 0, p. 38). — The cranium is mode- 

 rately long and slender as seen from the side ; in a dorsal view the 

 posterior part is of considerable bi-eadth. The parietals are small, 

 and meet in a mesial suture. They lie over the supraoccipital, 

 which extends well forward beneath the posterior parts of the 

 frontals. The character of the famil}- Elopidte given by Boulenger 

 (' Poissons du Bassin du Congo,' 1901, p. 46), " os parietaux separant 

 le susoccipital des frontaux," Mobile applying coi'rectly enough to 

 Megalops, does not apply in the case of Elop)s. The remark is 

 repeated without modification in the later diagnosis of the family 

 appearing in the Ann. & Mag. ISTat. Hist. 1904, xiii. p. 164. The 



